‘Over-population root cause of global water crisis’

Staff Report

ALAHORE: The root cause of current global water crisis, especially in the third world countries, is population and there is a serious need to meet this crisis with modern techniques of water management.

This was the crux of the speech of Dr Ashfaq Ahmad, special advisor to the prime minister and former chairman of Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC), while addressing a seminar ‘Sustainable Use of Water Resources’ and the launching ceremony of his book ‘Water And New Techniques’ held at the Bukhari Auditorium of the Government College University (GCU).

“In the age of population explosion, more water is required for irrigation and we need t o develop a sound planning to utilize water resources,” he said.

He said the secretary general of the United Nations had emphasized the importance of water, energy, health, agriculture and biotechnology in abbreviated form ‘WEHAB’, adding 2003 had been declared the year of fresh water.

He said his book would help introduce new technologies. “The book has chapters on application of information technology tilted ‘water informatics’. It provides useful data on rainfall, rivers, water table, water quality and other useful sources of information.” Satellite Remote Sensing, he added, could supply useful data about the snow cover on mountains and the state of health of glaciers, flow of rivers and reservoirs of water.

“Satellites Imagery is useful for dam sighting and reconnaissance f costal areas,” he added.

Dr Hameed Ahmad Khan, executive director of Commission on Science and Technology for Sustainable Development in the South (COMSATS) Pakistan, said water management was a burning issue and had special significance in a drought-like situation. “Water scarcity has become a greater concern at present as more than 1.2 billion people were facing shortage of water,” he added.

Dr Asad Qureshi of International Water Management Institute (IWMI) highlighted the need for gross root level approach to deal with water crisis. He said water and poverty issues were interrelated

Dr Qureshi, Dr Richard Garstrang of World Wide Foundation (WWF), Dr Javed Afzal of Leads and Dr AU Khan read their papers on water issues.

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