Daily Times

LAHORE: The World Wide Fund for Nature-Pakistan (WWF-Pakistan) and Centre of Water Informatics and Technology (WIT) of the Lahore University of Management Science (LUMS) signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to make responsible strategies and work towards increasing water security in the country. The formal agreement was signed by WWF-Pakistan Director General Hammad Naqi Khan and LUMS Rector Dr Sohail Naqvi on Thursday.

The MoU forged a partnership of two years between the organisation and the institute, starting from April 2017 and ending in December 2019. According to the MoU, WWF-Pakistan will extend opportunities of collaboration in water stewardship and water security issues pertaining to agriculture, habitats and engagement in the Indus basin. Furthermore, the organisation will collaborate with LUMS in initiatives regarding policy-level advocacy, floodplain and disaster management, and the possibility to implement studies conducted to ensure environmental flows in all rivers across Pakistan. This collaboration is expected to materialise over the period of time to build on WWF-Pakistan’s existing knowledge of “water stewardship and security”, and to further extend the concept in industries, multinational corporations, the legal fraternity, academia and NGOs. Also, the LUMS Centre for Water Informatics and Technology, in collaboration with Media Lab and Nestle Pakistan, held a public screening of the documentary ‘The Indus River Basin as a Garden’. The film illuminated interesting aspects of the anthropology related to the Indus River in conjunction with the history of the architecture of the waterworks at the Shalimar Garden in Lahore. The 50-minute documentary shared the vision proposed by James Wescoat Jr, professor at MIT, followed by the realisation of this vision through the pioneering initiatives undertaken by the WIT in the sector of “smart water grid” technology.