Karachi:Academicians reviewing the National Climatic Change Policy draft, designed recently by the federal government, on Thursday discussed the contents and identified gaps in the draft, saying all the relevant agencies did not have qualified people to cope with the expected impacts of global warming, resulting in depleting natural resources in Pakistan, especially in Sindh, which has lost a wide area due to sea erosion.
They said that the government had introduced major policies in the past, which could not achieve the set targets due to the lack of political will.
Professors and senior faculty members from the Mehran University of Engineering and Technology (MUET), the University of Sindh Jamshoro, the Agriculture University Tando Jam, the Quaid-e-Awam University Nawabshah and individual researchers participated in a review meeting organised by Research and Development Foundation (RDF) in collaboration with Oxfam GB on Thursday in Hyderabad.
Discussion with universities and government institutions was the part of series of meetings, RDF started with stakeholders, including the community people, mostly those living and experiencing direct effects of sea level rise, drought, aridity, water shortage and diseases. The purpose of the meetings was to collect inputs and compile recommendations which will be shared with policy makers for further improvement and considerations to make the draft implementable.
The participants mostly having vast experience in research and development include, Prof M Ismail Kumbhar, Prof (retd) Shah Nawaz Chandio, Dr Inayatullah Rajpar of Agriculture University Tando Jam, Dr Rasool Bux Mahar of MUET, Dr Bakhshal Lashari of MUET, Saeed Ahmed Bablani of Sindh University (SU), Prof Abdul Khaliq Ansari of MUET, Prof Niaz Memon of Quaid-e-Awam University Nawabshah, Dr Habibullah Abbasi (PhD in Environment), Niaz Sial RDF Programme Coordinator, Ashfaq Soomro and others took active part in the discussion.
Dr Bakhshal Lashari of MUET, a renowned researcher and president RDF said that they were organising such meetings in different towns and villages to discuss with stakeholders, including community, professionals and academia to understand whatever they felt; what they share their experience and contribute to make this document useful. “We want to get feedbacks from all stakeholders and then will compile suggestions and recommendations during the process of this consultation.”
Dr Rasool Bux of SU originally belongs to Thar Desert recalling his childhood says weather patron has been changed, effecting ecology. In Thar during 1980s there was cloudy weather in the area. The people used to live a happy life, enjoying with crops, natural vegetables, fruits during the rainy season and wildlife was there all around. However, he pointed out that agriculture and livestock are more contributing factors. Paddy crops produce methane gases, which are higher than Co2.
Participants said, “In paddy cultivation areas, farmers usually burn cow-dung for growing nursery as it needed ashes, which was considered fertile for the seed growing in the fields. Similarly, paddy and sugarcane growers burn waste. There was no legislation to stop this 24-hour burning flames. Agri waste and paddy waste we can use for energy production. We can develop small power plants to produce 50-kw energy, sugarcane and paddy waste we can use for this. Irony is that farmers burn this waste purposelessly which we should stop and use purposefully. There should have action plan and mechanism of implementation to avoid such losses. They said that public awareness issue is confusing many people do not know the climate change and global warming. Public awareness issue should have been mentioned in the draft. Deaths of under-five children are linked to the use of contaminated water since the last 20 years”.
Dr Inayatullah Rajpar said that neither methodology of implementation nor was legislation mentioned in the draft. He said that the consultants should have consultation meetings with all stakeholders to collect the issues of different areas, like coast, Thar Desert, mountainous, arid zones and cultivation areas. The well-written draft carried different gaps because they have designed it without consulting with the people. Similarly, policy drafts need political will to implement the same to achieve objectives.
Prof Niaz Memon of Quaid-e-Awam University - who has conducted a fresh study on urban water resources in Sindh รณ said hardly six-seven years back there was acute water shortage and drought-like situation in many areas of Sindh. And now the province faced the flood disaster, which has devastated the wide area. These are the outcomes of weather changing patron. He said that during his study it was observed that the water being used in Hyderabad city was not fit for human consumption.
Prof M Ismail Kumbhar said that excess use of pesticides put the human and wildlife vulnerable. We have experienced increasing mysterious diseases in rural areas and disappearing wildlife. This is happening because of pesticides, which in the world are banned and being used here without any check by certain authorities. He said few years back some non-governmental organizations took initiative to save brush trees to stop land erosion and avert disasters in coastal areas of Thatta and Badin districts. He said that options were available but it needed political will to avert further loss of natural resources by this natural phenomenon.
Niaz Sial said that landlords used 100 per cent land for cultivation. There was no space of land vacant where animals grazing could be made. Tree plantation had been decreased alarmingly. He suggested starting reforestation through awareness raising grassroots level to achieve the target.
Earlier, Ashfaq Soomro giving his input said that the opinion of communities living at grassroots level was very much important because they always faced the consequences of wrong policies and pay more price of it by frequent displacement and destruction, as being living on the edge of disasters their lives were vulnerable to face challenges.The news.
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