Islamabad — Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resources (PCRWR) in partnership with Riphah International University, The Asia Foundation and Pakistan Institute of Development Economics jointly organized a two day 6th International Water Conference. Key thematic areas of the conference were; Water for all (Water, Food Energy Nexus), H2O Podcast, Blue Economy, Water and Environment.
The inagural session of the workshop was held on 29th December 2020 at PCRWR Headquarters Islamabad. The Chairman Federal Flood Commission, Mr Ahmad Kamal was the chief guest of this session. Speaking on the ocassion he rendered that generating knowledge, awareness and knowledge management is crucial for good water resources management in the country. The Chairman PCRWR, Dr Muhammad Ashraf stressed on the importance of setting research priorties according to the issues in hand, which is water scaracity and prevailing scenairo of unfair utilization of water resources. The Deputy Vice Chancellor, Prof Dr. Saad Nadeem Zafar stressed on the modernization of water resources management through application of AI and IoT. The Vice Chancellor (Acting), Prof. Dr. Durr e Nayab highlighted unfair water pricing, virtual water trade and the state of underutilized “Blue Economy” of Pakistan. Director Program, The Asia Foundation, Mr Farid Alam highlighted the importance of Water Enegy Food nexus in the context of climate change and suggested to put research efforts in this context. The inagural session followed by the virtual presentation sessions of by the researchers.
All 6 conference sessions were held virtually involving 62 presenters, Master and PhD students from higher education institutions of Pakistan from far and wide of the country. The students presented some very innovative research project regarding wastewater quality management and treatment.