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Former Federal Minister and Chairman of Water Environment Forum Pakistan Mr. Nisar Ahmed Memon has said Pakistan’s contribution in greenhouse gas emission is less than one percentage but it suffers a lot from climate changes and for which mainly the superpower countries are responsible.  He said this during a lecture delivered on “Coastal Climate Change Challenges” at Sindh Madressatul Islam University (SMIU) on Tuesday.
Referring to the floods of 2010 and rains and floods of 2022 Mr. Memon said UN rated 2010 floods as ‘greatest humanitarian crisis in the recent history.’ Also UN General Secretary António Guterres during his visit to Sindh province of Pakistan in the month of September 2022 termed the 2022 floods in Pakistan as ‘unimaginable damage,’ caused by record monsoon rains, glacier melt and floods.’’
He further said Pakistan ranks 76th in 107 countries on the Global Food Security index and Pakistan’s current water availability is less than 1100 cubic meters per person.
He said Pakistan’s coastline is spread on 1,000 km, and out of which 250 km are in Sindh and 750 are km in Balochistan. This coastal area is very important for the country specially in terms of its economic development, but todays our sea from Karachi city is most polluted.
“The Indus irrigation system was a large irrigation system in the world, hence it needs attention of the concerned authorities,” Mr. Nisar Ahmed Memon said and added that in Sindh natural waterways are currently under occupation, hence during the floods and heavy rains people met out with heavy loss of properties and human lives, therefore, natural waterways must be restored. Mr. Nisar Ahmed Memon was of the view that Indus delta is enrich with mangrove forests and other hidden treasures, hence sweet water is needed for its ecosystem.
Talking on the Pakistan Vision 2025 he suggested key goals for responding to climate change. In this respect he said design water, food and energy security policies and plans with specific reference to climate change challenges, recognition of relevant risks and implementation of mitigation and adaptation strategies and promoting long term sustainability, conservation and protection of natural resources are needed.
He advised the students of SMIU to formulate a forum, through which they could aware the masses about environmental changes. He thanked to Vice Chancellor of SMIU Dr. Mujeeb Sahrai for inviting him for the lecture.
Dr. Mujeeb Sahrai said SMIU has started a Popular Lecture Series of lectures by scholars on very important issues facing the world and this was the first lecture of the series. He said we have huge energy in the form of youth, to whom we should use for betterment of the environment. He said the present day world has great threat from global warming and environmental changes, hence the world leaders must give priority to it for saving the planet of earth.
Earlier Director ORIC Dr. Aamir Iqbal Umrani presented welcome address and thanked the guest for delivering the lecture. On the occasion Dr. Mujeeb Sahrai gave away shield to Mr. Nisar Ahmed Memon. Deans, chairpersons, faculty, registrar, director finance, staff members and students attended the lecture.