By Abrar Tanoli

RIYADH — “The engineering bodies should drive the water crisis awareness campaign and not let the momentum for the dam fund fade away in Pakistan.”

Prof. Shahbaz Khan advised this in his keynote address titled “Pakistan Water Security Infrastructure – Role of Engineering Profession”. The seminar was arranged by the Institution of Engineers Pakistan, Saudi Arabian Center (IEP-SAC) at King Salman Social Center, which was attended by scores of Pakistani and other nationality engineers.

The local firms displayed their products in the exhibition hall of the center. The chief guest was Abdul Shakoor Sheikh, Welfare Attaché at the Embassy of Pakistan.

The proceedings started with the recitation of verses from the Holy Qur’an by Dr. Hafiz Imran. Eng. Rizwan Ahmad, chairman of IEP-SAC for Eastern region, presented the organization activities in the region. He mentioned that IEP-SAC Eastern region arranged a similar seminar on Global Water Scarcity issues in March while highlighting other activities arranged in the region.

IEP-SAC General Secretary Eng. Mohammad Asim Siddiqui presented the annual report of the organization. The report included the objectives and goals of the organization, the activities organized during the year, and the details about IEP-SAC scholarship program. While introducing the speaker, Dr. Rafiq Choudhry, the convener of technical seminar committee, stated Professor Shahbaz Khan is the Director Regional Science Bureau for Asia and the Pacific and UNESCO Representative for multiple Asian countries.

Professor Khan said that Pakistan could become from a “water deficit” to “water secure” country by adopting the research based, globally accepted methods. The systematic approach to achieve this objective in the next 10-12 years should focus on having sufficient and reliable water supplies, healthy and resilient rivers and productive water agriculture.

He presented multiple ways for on-farm and off-farm water savings and provided their environmental benefits. He said that major crop patterns of Pakistan and their water requirements should be shifted to achieve 10-30% increase in water security. He suggested that augmented water supply sources should be analyzed and explored, like rainwater harvesting, artificial storage and recharge of ground water from flood, reuse and recycle of drainage water. He advised the engineering community to lead the awareness campaign of water challenges and present the workable solutions to the decision and policy powerhouses in the country. The session was followed by the question and answer session, which was conducted by Dr. Rafiq Choudhry.

Shields were presented to the advertisers and sponsors of IEP-SAC in recognition of their support for the organization. Certificates of appreciation were also presented to the authors of research papers published in the current issue of IEP-SAC annual journal.

In his address, Welfare Attaché Sheikh said that Pakistani engineers are playing a vital role in the development of the brotherly country of Saudi Arabia. He praised the expertise and hard work of the learned guest speaker to present the water crisis of Pakistan and suggesting workable solutions. He admired IEP-SAC for arranging the seminar on this burning issue. He also praised the scholarship program of IEP-SAC to support the needy engineering students in Pakistan.

IEP-SAC Chairman Eng. Syed Muhammad Iqbal said that IEP-SAC would continue playing the role in raising the awareness about water crisis in Pakistan. He praised the guest speaker for traveling all the way from Jakarta to deliver the scholarly and informative lecture on the subject. He said that the scholarship program of IEP-SAC has been running for the past 22 years and currently 96 engineering students are benefiting from the program in 12 public sector universities in Pakistan and Azad Jammu Kashmir. He advised the Pakistani engineers to achieve excellence in their work and to work hard for the development of KSA. He thanked the sponsors and advertisers for their continuous support to IEP-SAC and thanked the audience for making the event successful.