CPDI arranges consultative workshop on climate change
Staff Reporter
PESHAWAR: Speakers at a consultative workshop on local government role in climate change adaptation on Thursday stressed the need for improving the situation of water storage and taking steps to reduce pollution.
A statement issued here said that the workshop ‘Local Governments: Legislative Framework and Institutional Capacity for Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation’ was jointly organized by the Center for Peace and Development Initiatives (CPDI) and Freidrich Naumann Foundation.
Speaking at this occasion, secretary local government and rural development department Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Syed Zahir-ul-Islam said that Pakistan lacked adequate storage capacity to store water which was insufficient to address a drought like situation.
He said that there were 54,000 dams across the world of which about 21,000 in China alone. “Unfortunately, Pakistan has only 87 reservoirs,” the secretary stated. He added that the current floods have destroyed infrastructure as well as agriculture which would further aggravate the food shortage in future.
Kohat University’s Vice Chancellor Professor Dr Sardar Khan in his presentation said that transportation sector contributed 27 percent of greenhouse gases, while electricity generators 25 percent, industry 24 percent and agriculture 12 percent.
He said that Pakistan needed to regulate these emissions in order to combat climate change. CPDI Executive Director Mukhtar Ahmed Ali at this occasion said that addressing climate change was not the change of a single entity like provincial or federal government; rather, it required concerted efforts from all stakeholders.
He told that the local government’s role in this regard was of pivotal nature as their representatives were available at grassroots level all over the province. He said that these representatives worked day and night to resolve the issues of their electorates.
Meanwhile, Moazzam Ali Janjua briefed the participants about the legal framework of the local government system and its role in the combating climate change.
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