earthPoems
Environment, British Columbia and the PunjabArchive for Cool City Lahore
SDPI Seminar on Climate Change, Lahore, May 2, 2011
SDPI Monday Seminar on
Climate Change Adaptation through Promotion of
Alternate and Energy Efficient Technologies in Pakistan
Date: Monday 2nd May, 2011
Time: 3:00 – 5:00 pm
Venue: SDPI Seminar Hall, 38, Embassy Road, G-6/3, Islamabad
Climate change is a global phenomenon and a challenging reality for thinkers, planners, policymakers and professionals alike. It is a phenomenon that is likely to impact almost every sector of Pakistan’s economy. Today it stands not only as a major environmental issue but also as a multi-dimensional developmental issue.
Climate change resulting from an increasing concentration of Greenhouse Gases (GHGs) in the atmosphere due to the use of fossil fuels and other human activities has become a major worldwide concern. It is particularly so for Pakistan because climate change could pose a direct threat to its water security, food security and energy security. The country’s vulnerability to such adverse impacts is likely to increase considerably in the coming decades as the average global temperature, which increased by 0.6 °C over the past century, is projected to increase further by 1.1 to 6.4 °C by the end of the current century. Pakistan contributes only about 0.38% of the total global GHG emissions. On per capita basis, Pakistan with 1.9 tonnes per capita GHG emissions stands at a level which corresponds to about one-third of the world average, one-fifth of the average for Western Europe and one tenth of the per capita emissions in the U.S., putting it at 135th place in the world ranking of countries on the basis of their per capita GHG emissions.
For mitigating and reducing the GHG emissions from the energy sector Energy Security Action Plan 2005-2030 envisages large roles for hydropower, renewable energy technologies (in particular, windmills), nuclear power and alternate energy technologies in future energy supplies. A number of projects on energy efficiency improvement, energy conservation and use of decentralized renewable energy technologies being implemented by many institutions including Pakistan Council of Renewable Energy Technologies (PCRET).
The focus of this seminar is to create awareness about changing climate scenarios and provide recommendations for efficient use of alternate energy sources through adopting adaptation measures and promoting energy efficient technologies. Further the introduction of Energy Efficient Cooking Stoves (EECS) Technology would be highlighted in presentations and during the session. An energy efficient stove is a new technology that is replacing our traditional stoves. Traditional stoves are big threat to firewood consumption and forest degradation.
Chair
Mr Abdul Rasheed Khan, Senior Advisor, Ministry of Science and Technology, GoP
Speakers
Dr Mahmood A. Khwaja, Senior Advisor, SDPI
Mr Zafar Iqbal Khokhar, Director General, Pakistan Council for Renewable Energy Technology PCRET
Mr Babar Khan, National Integrated and Development Association (NIDA) Pakistan, Besham
Mr Bakht Muhammad, Sahara Welfare Foundation (SWF), Malakand
Ms Javeriya Hasan, Research associate, SDPI
Ms Anusha Sherazi, Project Associate, SDPI
For further details please contact:
Anusha Sherazi
Research Assistant
Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI)
House 38, Old Embassy Road, G-6/3, Islamabad-Pakistan
anusha@sdpi.org
anusha_sherazi87@yahoo.com
Tel: ++(92-51) 2270674-6, 2275642, 2278134
Fax: ++(92-51)2278135
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PHA refills Manto Park lake without repairs
By Afnan Khan
LAHORE: The Parks and Horticulture Authority (PHA) has allowed the refilling of the artificial lake in Manto Park without repairing its base and boundary walls.
The PHA emptied the one-kilometre-long lake more than a month ago with a view to construct a concrete base and walls of the ancient lake as the constant water seepage from the lake was damaging the base of Minar-e-Pakistan.
Contractors and employees associated with the park told Daily Times that the decision to repair the lake was taken as cracks in its base were contaminating water with sewerage from a nearby drain, besides posing a danger to the foundation of the national monument. Similarly, the seepage was also damaging houses situated on the backside of the lake. There are also complaints from residents about the contamination of drinking water in the area.
Contractor Abid Hussain, who maintains the lake, said that the authorities had decided to drain water from the lake to repair it for leakages, which could damage the monument. However, another contractor, Tariq, said that the water seepage had not caused any damage to the monument so far. It was decided to refill the lake after a meeting with Project Director Yaqoob Chaudhry and other officials to entertain visitors on Eid, he added. The contractor said that water pumps had been turned on to refill the lake, adding that the lake would be ready for boating one week before Eid.
A park employee said that the lake was being refilled because contractors and the PHA were keen to make money on Eid through boating and operating a swing installed in the middle of the lake. The employee said that fish from the drain enter the lake through cracks and kill farm fish kept in the lake.
Minar-e-Pakistan Project Director Yaqoob Chaudhry said that the government had not released funds in time for the lake repair. He said contractors would lose a major portion of their profit if the lake was not opened on Eid.
Precautions: The director said that the stoppage of seepage was a precautionary measure, adding that it was not causing any damage to the monument. He said that the lake had been purged of parasite fish, adding that the repair work would start after the funds were released after Eid.
Lahore’s water contaminated by pollutants
By Khalid Hasan
WASHINGTON: A hundred percent of samples taken from Lahore’s water supply and tested in 2006 were found to be contaminated, according to a paper presented at a conference on Pakistan’s water problem held at the Woodrow Wilson Centre.
According to Anita Chaudhry, who teaches Economics at the California State University, the contaminants found in Lahore’s water were iron, arsenic and bacteria.
Four years earlier, only 56 percent of the samples were contaminated. She also said that the average groundwater depth in east Lahore is 100 feet, while it is 40 feet in west Lahore. Access to safe drinking water in Punjab’s urban areas in 2002 was 95 percent against 87 percent in rural areas. Access to sanitation in urban areas was 92 percent and 35 percent in rural areas.
Problems: Chaudhry found that Lahore has no public storage capacity and water supply lasts for a few hours a day and remains highly variable. She also observed a crumbling distribution network with leaks and ‘unaccounted for’ water, nor was there any effective metering of water use.
At least 35 percent of households in urban Punjab have private electric groundwater pumps, Chaudhry said. She found that the costs of decentralised water access could be several times the cost of a centralised efficient water system. Because of dynamic inefficiency, water was being depleted for future generations.
Sewage, she found, is not treated and eventually it seeps into groundwater. She noted that the Pakistan Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has established adequate standards for drinking water for physical parameters, bacterial contamination, essential inorganics and radioactive contamination.
Organic contaminants are, however, not regulated on a compound by compound basis. To avoid declining groundwater tables and deteriorating groundwater quality in fresh groundwater areas, and to ensure equal access to this increasingly important natural resource, the water portfolio, she suggested, should be diversified.
There should also be harvesting of rainwater, a reduction in groundwater withdrawals, proper management of wastewater and an appreciation of the constraints on fresh water. Chaudhry said the increase in supply of water is fundamentally a question of ‘reallocation’.
