Faisalabad Research Forum meeting

Faisalabad Research Forum meeting has put environment issues on top priority in the face of depleting water and forest resources; increasing pollution, climate changes and waste management challenges confronting the Country in general and the City, which is known for industrial activities, in particular. The meeting was chaired by Commissioner Faisalabad Sardar Akram Javed at New Senate Hall, University of Agriculture Faisalabad (UAF). The meeting also approved establishing the Environment Protection Forum to address the issue by involving all stakeholders, industrials, scientists and civil society for the noble cause. The meeting also approved setting up Arfa Karim Information Technology Park in order to promote the IT industry in the third largest city of the county. UAF Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Iqrar Ahmad Khan, District Coordination Officer (DCO) Noor-ul-Amin Mengal, GC University Faisalabad Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Zakir Hussain, Additional Commissioner Mehar Shafqat Ullah Mushtaq, Faisalabad Development Authority Additional Director General Muhammad Ahmad Rajwana, Wasa Managing Director Zahid Aziz, Punjab Forest Research Institute Director Muhammad Afzal, FAST Director and Faisalabad Campus, Aftab Maroof also spoke on the occasion. Addressing on the occasion, the Commissioner said that Pakistan was having only around 3 percent forest compared to international standards of 25 percent, aggravating the environmental issues. He said that reduction in trees means increase in carbon dioxide and decrease in oxygen. He called for making joint efforts on the part of all stakeholders to address the issue. He urged the scientists to produce techniques and innovations that would become the public friendly goods to severe the humanity. He was of the view that the mechanism is needed to achieve the targets of Production Possibility Curve by all institutions, and sectors. Talking about the food security, he said that the climate changes are affecting our food production. The country is losing 30 to 40 percent in post harvest losses that can be tackled by giving awareness and transferring modern techniques among farmers. He lauded the UAF for becoming first-ever university of the country in top 100 universities of the world. He also congratulated the UAF for developing UAF 11 oil seeds crop that produces more oil in less time. Prof Dr Iqrar Ahmad Khan said that University research portfolio of external funded project had gone up manifolds in five years. Currently, the UAF is working on 265 external funded research projects worth 2,085 million compared to 400 million five years ago. He said it is need of the hour to work on ground water recharge to mitigate the issue. The Vice Chancellor stressed the need to promote the drip irrigation, sprinkle irrigation and Precision Agriculture to save the natural resources. He added that the UAF is taking all possible steps to promote the technologies through its outreach programme. The UAF is providing assistance to the Punjab Government in order to promoting the biogas tubewells. The Punjab Government has taken hallmark scheme of distributing 0.1 million biogas tubewells among farmers. He said that the country largest import include oil and pulses. If we promote it cultivating, we can save billions of rupees. DCO Noorul-Amin said as many as Rs 100 million had been earmarked for the plantation of City in to make it more beautify and present aesthetic look. He said City government is also mapping out a comprehensive strategy to it lush green as per pattern of Lahore City. He said that the City had the huge potential that would be explored to work. He also said that Rs 50 million had been allocated for preserving the cultural heritage of the City. He added that the District Administration would provide internship opportunity to UAF Horticulture students in order to make their participation for the beatification of the city. Prof Dr Zakir Hussain said that the Ground Water Authority should be set up to tackle the issue of ground water as no authority is functioning here. He also offered to provide sufficient piece of land to establish the Technology Park. He also suggested setting up the big dam as Pakistan is counted in the list of water scarce country. Per capita water availability has gone below 1000 cubic metre which is threshold level. He said that water scarcity was moving the country increase in poverty. Muhammad Ahmad Rajwana said canal road is taken as the pilot project for the plantation and the beautification. He stressed the need to make the environment clean by involving the civil society in order to create awareness among the masses. Zahid Aziz said that WASA was receiving 3 times sewage water than the supplied water owing to industrial city. He said that population of the City needs to be shifted from the brackish water zone to sweet water zone.