Water scarcity worsening due to climate change and growing population

Ziauddin University (ZU) as a member of Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) hosted parallel sessions of the international conference.

The 9th Annual International Conference on Sustainable Development (ICSD) was organized by the (SDSN) for the UN. Theme of this year’s international conferences was “Research for Impact: An Inclusive and Sustainable Planet”. It was an honor for the Ziauddin University to be selected and become members of the conference Scientific Committee for the year 2021.

During the first session of an international conference, Pro chancellor Ziauddin University, Dr Nida Hussain presented her views about SDG Learnings from COVID-19 for Science-Informed Decision-Making.

During the invited talk of the session, Dr NIda Hussain said “It is about the Science-Policy Interface: Science-informed decision-making is an increasingly urgent need, as demonstrated by the management of the global COVID-19 pandemic. Many lessons must be learned in order to equip decision makers and citizens to better understand the risks and impacts of public policy decisions.”

“It has been 18 months since COVID-19 was declared a pandemic by the WHO and it also gave us a learning opportunity as well that can be applied towards reaching the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The past 18 months has really shown the positive impact that open science can have. The scientist went on to be part of the policy making forums to help the world combat the pandemic. Science will have to continue staying in the forefront if we want to make meaningful progress on SDGs”, she added.

While talking about the role of science she stated that the pandemic has signaled that open science is the most efficient way to tackle issues that have a significant and direct effect on the lives of the general public. We must make a great effort to put this into meaningful action.”

Second session of the SDSN was moderated by Director, Office of Research, Innovation & Commercialization (ORIC), Dr Zulfiqar Ali Umrani. While talking about “SDG-6 implementation in LMICs and how National Water Policies Can Accelerate Progress” he said “the world is facing water scarcity which is going to become worse due to the impact of climate change and a growing population. Like most of the Global-South, Pakistan is also struggling to achieve the SDG6 targets by 2030. Pakistan’s neighbors, like China and India, have started aligning their National Water Policies (NWPs) with the SDG6 targets to accelerate implementation.”