National workshop on Pakistan’s Achievement of Water Related SDGs was held at the Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resources (PCRWR) Headquarter on March 14-15 in Islamabad

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A national workshop on Pakistan’s Achievement of Water Related SDGs was held at the Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resources (PCRWR) Headquarter on March 14-15 in Islamabad. The workshop was jointly organized by the United Nations University, Institute for Water Environment and Health(UNU-INWEH), Canada and Water Resources Section, Ministry of Planning Development and Reforms. The national workshop was attended by researchers and scientists, water sector experts, policy makers and civil society representatives. Professor Dr. Manzoor H. Soomro, President ECO Science Foundation along with Mr. Khalil Raza participated in the workshop.

Federal Minister for Science and Technology, Rana Tanveer Hussain was the Chief Guest of the event. He emphasized the importance of water, as it is critical to the development of the country and ensuring food security. He further stressed for making collaborative effort and appropriate planning to formulate a policy to address the water related issues and achieve Sustainable Development Goals by 2030.

The event included the presentations by various key stakeholders, breakout sessions and discussion on key policy issues such as the capacity building, access to clean water, financing, and disaster risk management. Dr. Manzoor Qadir from UNU-INWEH, Canada briefed participants about a two-year project “Water in the World We Want – water related SDG Framework for National Action. This project focuses on the adoption of water related SDGs in planning and policy process at national level for Pakistan.

The outcome of this project is the development of an interactive Microsoft Excel tool that provide platform and support for countries like Pakistan to enable evidence-based decision making and policy development at national-level, with regard to water-related Sustainable Development Goals and targets.  This tool can be an effective instrument that can be utilized by policy makers at the provincial and federal level, water sector experts and academicians to track the performance of Pakistan in achieving water related SDGs. Mr. Khalil Raza, Scientific Officer also moderated one of the breakout sessions on “Transparency and Policy and Institutional Strength”, where key policy framework and instruments related to water sector in Pakistan were discussed.