AMRAIZ KHAN
World Environment Day 2023 was observed on Monday by organising a capacity building workshop for the media and highlighting the role of water governance in fostering prosperity and sustainable development in Punjab.
The workshop was organised under the UK Aid-funded Water Resource Accountability in Pakistan (WRAP) Programme Component Climate Resilient Solutions for Improving Water Governance (CRS-IWaG) led by the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) Pakistan. Speaking on the occasion, Dr. Mohsin Hafeez, Director – Water, Food and Ecosystems, IWMI, and Team Leader, WRAP Programme Component 1: CRS-IWaG, informed the media that with increasing impacts of climate change, Punjab is experiencing unpredictable rainfall patterns, which is increasing reliance on groundwater resources. He suggested, “Through climate-smart interventions, IWMI Pakistan aims to guide farmers, industrialists, urban water users, and other stakeholders on sustainable water use, so that water scarcity can be addressed.”
Dr. Hafeez also gave an overview of the implementation progress of Punjab-specific interventions introduced under the WRAP Programme Component 1: CRS-IWaG.
It includes the implementation of a robust capacity building programme for government departments and other stakeholders at provincial and district (Okara) level; installation of Conductivity, Temperature and Depth (CTD) automated groundwater divers and soil moisture sensors in Okara for groundwater monitoring and assessing crop water requirements respectively; development of Water Accounting (WA+) and Irrigation Demand Management (IDM) framework, geotagging of groundwater monitoring sites for piezometer installation in Okara through Principal Component Analysis (PCA), and approaching academia in Punjab to develop consortium of societies on environment and agriculture for students’ capacity building.
An early success has been the notification by Punjab Irrigation Department (PID) confirming the adoption of PCA methodology introduced by IWMI under the programme.
