May 08, 2007	Tuesday	Rabi-us-Sani 20, 1428

ISLAMABAD, May 7: Water is a major source of tussle between the people of Sindh and Punjab and has created a sense of insecurity at the country level.

This was stated by Adil Najam, associate professor of international negotiation and diplomacy at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University, USA, during a lecture on “Globalisation and environment: five propositions” at the Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI) here on Monday.

Presenting a bleak picture of water situation in the major cities of Pakistan and India, he said every month contaminated water killed more people in Kolkota than the total number of Indians killed by the Pakistan army during the last 55 years and the same was the case with Karachi.

However, he ruled out a future war on water in South Asia or between India and Pakistan.

“At least there could be no war on water between India and Pakistan, because we have many other things to fight for in South Asia,” Prof Najam said.

In response to a question, he said there would be definitely negative impacts of the stand-off between the Indian and Pakistani armies in Kargil and Northern Areas but conducting research on security and environment was really a risky job, though some people in the US had started work on it.

He said talks for globalisation had been preoccupied with the issue of trade despite the fact that the issue of environment was more global than trade and degradation of environment in one country affected people in the other.

“If we could look at our world from another world as a single country, our globe would present the picture of a poor country where the top 20 per cent enjoyed the resources while the remaining 80 per cent were living a miserable life.” He said there was insecurity and environmental degradation.

“If taken as a single country, our world would just present the picture of a Third World country,” he added.

And if the whole world as a single country presented the picture of an underdeveloped country, then the problems haunting globalisation should also be looked at from the lenses of a Third World country, he said.

He said without realising the importance of environment, globalisation would never work. Countries should not fall in the South-North debate - that who is responsible for the environmental degradation, the rich (North) or poor countries (South).

In response to another question, he said if we deduct the money China spent each year on environmental related damages, the actual growth rate of the Chinese economy falls to 6 per cent.

He said even if all the vehicles in the world were put on ethanol instead of oil or gas, the problem of pollution could never be resolved.

The decision of some Latin American countries to produce ethanol from corn had multiplied the prices of corn in the international market and created the issue of food security.

He said Pakistan would have to act beyond just making reports on environment and do something practical for the conservation of ecosystem.