President Worldwide Fund for Nature International (WWF), Dean Emeritus and Professor of International Relations and Earth and Environment at the Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University, Dr Adil Najam on Monday said the Indus River facing existential threats due to environmental degradation, pollution and climate change needed multiples interventions and a holistically redefined approach to avert climate-induced risks.
He was addressing to the dialogue on Water Climate Food Nexus- Need for Integrated Approaches organised here by the National Disaster Risk Management Fund (NDRMF).
Dr Adil Najam said Indus River was a mighty resource that would take all of the resources and institutions to reclaim it.
He added that the initiatives like afforestation, Recharge Pakistan, groundwater recharging wells and multiple approaches like that would be needed to meet the goal of a Living Indus River.
The WWF International president observed that climate was related to water, adding, “Pakistan is a country born of a water system. 90% of Pakistan lives along Indus whereas 85% of its economy relied on Indus River.” Climate Change, he said had become nature and nature retaliated when it was attacked.
He added that energy and mobility needed to be incorporated in climate water nexus whereas infrastructure was also important.
Dr Najam said plastics had now become a major water issue as microplastics’ consumption had increased at an alarming level.
He also argued that heatwave in Karachi was also a water issue as people mostly died of dehydration as they were poor lack no access to trees and shade during hot weather.
“This is a solvable problem and it do not require any international funding to do it,” he added.
He opined that climate change was not a triple crisis but rather a multifaceted crisis.
“We are now in the age of adaptation. For developing countries having low emissions take mitigation to cut future emissions but when they fail, they had to switch to adaptation. Adaptation incurs fundamental change that alter everything and it will fundamentally change policy and politics,” he said.
Earlier, Secretary Ministry of Water Resources Hassan Nasir Jamy in his opening remarks welcomed all the participants and explained the focus of the dialogue.
The theme of the dialogue on climate water food nexus was important as it was time for action, he added.
He said Pakistan needed to develop a clear roadmap as the 2022 floods were an eye opener for Pakistan that indicated that there was no time left.
The civil society, academia and experts role was important to have experience sharing to cope with the risks of climatic disasters, Jamy said.
“We need to enhance funding and investment in research and technology focusing climate change whereas institutions need to change and adapt to the developing trends and scenarios,” the secretary said.
Jamy added that the country needed more professional input and human resources alongwith the synchronisation of climate change, food and water policies for an inclusive action.
Chief Executive Officer (CEO) NDRMF, Bilal Anwar said Pakistan was undeniably facing the triple challenge of climate change with its impacts equally affecting economy, water and agriculture.
Historically the progress in agriculture underlined that Pakistan managed to get its needs fulfilled whereas the country’s population was going to reach 250 million in the coming years.
“Pakistan is a water constraint country whereas 90% of its freshwater is used in agriculture sector. Today’s focus of the discussion was future usage of water amid growing scarcity,” he added.
Anwar said economic losses due to climate change showed how the country governed the disasters like floods and droughts.
The new and emerging menace of climate change needed to be managed amicably whereas climate change demanded a new governance paradigm for climate food nexus, he added.
The NDRMF CEO noted that the integrated approaches and professional collaboration between the institutions was critical, whereas Fund would focus on institutional capacity development, civil private partnerships, and mutual cooperation for combating climate change.
Chairman Federal Flood Commission (FFC), Ahmed Kamal in his address said the temperature rise in the country was more than the average world temperature increase. In 2010 floods, some 20 million people got affected and $10.8 billion economic losses were bore by the national economy.
However, the rising number of impacted and vulnerable districts indicated future risks of floods in the region.
The Commission, he said had proposed forecasting center each in the provinces including Gilgit Baltistan (GB) and Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK).
The session culminated with a panel discussion comprising of Country Director, ADB, Yong Ye, Country Director AFD Philippe Steinmetz, DG WWF-Pakistan Hammad Naqi Khan and CEO NDRMF Bilal Anwar.
