KARACHI, Aug 24: A consultative workshop on water management in Pakistan here on Thursday stressed the need for multi-stakeholder platform which should take up the issue on a broader prospective to develop a national consensus on this vital issue.

Organized by the IUCNP, the workshop highlighted the importance of water issue currently being debated and dominated by the big dams which are being considered to be panacea for all water storage problems in the country.

Participants of the workshop included experts on environment, professors, engineers and community leadersnoted with concern there was little dialogue within the government and civil society about alternatives to these big dams.

They observed that few alternatives to the large dam options have been developed and being put to a debate to assess whether they are viable. These debates termed very emotional as there was little focus on factual information and needs.

The participants critically examined the various aspects of the IUCNP-WP’s project and the participants also submitted their suggestions in view of local conditions.

The IUCN project was primarily based on developing scenarios for optimal infrastructure investments in the water sector and developing scenarios for alternatives to the big dams and creating an environment to enable a serious dialogue with government and civil society on the proposed dams, such as Basha, Kalabagh and others on the basis of data in terms of water storage, electricity generation, people displaced and cost of construction and ecosystem impacts.

It also proposed a multi-stakeholder platform for an integrated structured dialogue between the government and civil society on large infrastructure and assist Pakistani society to manage the country’s water resources.

Initiating the debate, IUCNP’s head of water programme Dr Abdul Majeed explained the objectives of the workshop, saying water is a crucial issue of the world, particularly in Pakistan. He stressed that collective and integrated efforts were needed to manage the water resources in Pakistan.

He said climatic changes were being used by the various organizations according to the local needs of the population and suggested conducting scientific research on the subject.

Mr Eli Jan Saaf, an IUCN consultant, moderated the discussion and elaborated various components of the IUCN water programme. He said the theme of the programme is to develop upland-lowland linkages and added that the programme was in response to the ever-increasing realization of the importance of water as a pivotal in ecosystem and livelihoods for millions of people.

The issue of canal-lining in Sindh and water trading in Balochistan also came under discussion. Some of the speakers emphasized the need for plugging the underground water seepages, saying it would reduce water losses.

According to an IUCN survey, in Pakistan, an estimated 121 billion cubic meters (98 million acre feet) is supposedly “lost” through the conveyance systems of the Indus Basin irrigation system every years. This is almost 60 per cent of the total amount of water available to the country yearly.

The government is currently developing a 1.5 billion US dollar intervention designed to line 1000s of kilometers of canals.

Lining of these canals would reduce losses during conveyance and reduce water-logging and salinity in those areas where water table is almost at the surface.

However, report says in many other places this recharge is crucial for aquifer recharge, preventing soil erosion and ensuring livelihoods. An issue is to consider here whether the energy used to pump up water from the recharged aquifer for irrigation or drinking purposes could be saved if water were allocated more effectively.

Other speakers were Shamsul Haq Memon of the Coastal Development Authority, Dr Asadullah Qazi, Vice-Chancellor of Isra University, Ms Zubeda Birwani, chairperson of Pakistan Mahigir Tehrik, Dr Nisar Ahmed Memon, Dr Hena Beg, Rehat Jabeen, Khawaja Saleem Mustaf, Mohammad Azam Kansi, Jalauddin Qureshi, Fateh Marri and Dr Buxial Lashari.

Earlier, Nasir Ali Panhwar of IUCN Sindh, welcomed the participants, saying that IUCN believes in consultation and ensures to involve diverse stakeholders in development of strategies, plans and programmes and adding that this workshop is also part of IUCN’s tradition to solicit input from the range of stakeholders to finalize the IUCN water programme.