LAHORE, Sept 11: World Wide Fund for Nature-Pakistan’s (WWF-Pakistan) project on ‘City-Wide Partnership for Sustainable Water Use and Water Stewardship in Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) of Lahore’ was presented at World Water Week in Stockholm, Sweden, last week, says a press release issued by the WWF.

The project highlights effective water resource management in SMEs of Lahore and adjoining areas thus formulating a mechanism of water cooperation with the private sector to become active stewards of water.

Ali Hasnain Sayed, manager of the Water Security and Stewardship at WWF-Pakistan, said the forum in Stockholm discussed the dynamics within water resource management which were changing with the entry of a powerful actor: the private sector.

According to the press release, corporate water users increasingly perceive water scarcity, quality degradation and floods as direct business risks whereas indirect regulatory and reputation risks arise when water becomes a shared resource with communities and ecosystems.

Institutional factors, such as weak regulation and governance, are often identified as significant contributors to the manifestation of these risks.

“In response, businesses are partnering with non-government organisations (NGOs), donors and governments in collective action to attempt to mitigate shared water risks,” says Mr Sayed.

“As companies start to engage in what are often weakly governed systems, how can checks and balances be established to ensure that broader society also benefits and corporate policy capture is avoided? What roles can different actors play to ensure these partnerships are transparent and help to strengthen water governance? How can these partnerships complement existing water sector strategies and strengthen the role of the public sector, rather than initiating parallel activities? The Stockholm seminar explored these complex issues and changing dynamics using experiences and lessons from a series of on-the ground case studies from around the world to bring discussions to life,” he says.

WWF-Pakistan’s water stewardship project, in partnership with the Cleaner Production Institute (CPI) and the WWF-UK, and funded by the European Union’s SWITCH-Asia programme, is an example of how businesses are successfully partnering with NGOs to manage water risks and issues to benefit society.

The project is contributing towards improved environmental sustainability and livelihoods as well as supporting sustainable economic growth and development in Pakistan. It aims to support an improvement in sustainable production and consumption practices, with a focus on water use and water management in high water using, cross-sectoral, urban based small and medium enterprises (SMEs).

The project is focused on Lahore which has approximately 2,700 SMEs, and five surrounding industrial districts of Sheikhupura, Kasur, Gujranwala, Faisalabad and Sialkot.

SMEs in Punjab province have particularly low water efficiency in factory operations compared to their counterparts in southern Pakistan. The action focuses on SMEs in high water using and polluting processing and manufacturing sectors of textiles, sugar, pulp and paper and tanneries. These sectors are resource intensive, using large amounts of water (and energy) and contributing significantly to overall pollution levels in Pakistan with consequential impacts on poverty and health of local communities.

Through its partnerships with the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industries and Punjab Small Industries Corporation, WWF-Pakistan aims to establish strong linkages and outreach in order to promote sustainable industrial development and best water management practices in Pakistan.