June 7, 2005	Tuesday	Rabi-us-Sani 29, 1426

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PESHAWAR, June 6: Experts at a seminar have stressed the need for an integrated approach for effective utilization of water resources as the population of the country is expected to increase to 221 million by 2025. The three-day seminar on trends in water desalination is being held here at the University of Engineering and Technology in collaboration with the Higher Education Commission.

University of Peshawar Vice-Chancellor Mumtaz Gul, who was the chief guest in the opening session, said that demands on the country’s water resources Ranged from drinking and sanitation to irrigation, manufacturing and as a vital component of the ecosystem.

He said access to water was everyone’s right but it was important to sensitise stakeholders regarding utilizing and finding ways to overcome shortage of the resource.

Prof Hisham El Deseouky of the UET chemical engineering department, winner of the Prince Sultan bin Abdul Aziz International Prize for Water, said desalination could provide significant benefits to communities along the coasts which had depleted or limited access to traditional ground or surface water supplies.

The experts said Pakistan was classed as a water-stressed nation, having about 1,200 cubic metres per capita annual water availability, which was expected to fall below 1,000 cubic metres by 2010 if the current situation prevailed.

They said the coastal areas of the country in general and of Karachi in particular needed to satisfy the increasing demands of freshwater. They said the water requirement of Karachi was expected to reach 820 million gallons per day in 2005.

They said the coastal areas of Balochistan and Sindh were affected by rapid urbanization and scarcity of water.

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