ISLAMABAD: Climate Change Minister Senator Sherry Rehman Friday said that 80 percent of Pakistan’s agriculture and more than three quarters of the country’s economy resides near the Indus and Pakistan’s “history, topography and culture are defined by this river.”

She shared these views presiding over the maiden meeting of the Steering Committee on Living Indus Initiative at the Ministry of Climate Change (MoCC).

“It has been sustaining life for 5,000 years – but will it sustain life for the next 100 years? This is now our responsibility to work together and across the federal, provincial, and local levels to rejuvenate the Indus River, because we don’t have the luxury to wait,” the minister argued.

She said the Living Indus Initiative is an “ambitious project that has the full support of the federal cabinet, and we look forward to working together with all the relevant stakeholders to fulfil this dream of ours through this steering committee.”

The committee, she said, will guide this initiative to “recharge this lifeline of Pakistan, the Indus River, which is responsible for the livelihoods of 80 per cent of the Pakistani population.”

Rehman said the purpose of the steering committee is to seek guidelines from all the stakeholders and formulate the way forward.

The committee discussed the next steps on how financing can be unlocked for the projects under the initiative, building teams to monitor and support implementation, and exploring communication strategies for advocacy of the Living Indus Initiative, highlighting the story of the Indus River, and the urgency of this initiative.

It was also discussed how the stakeholders can share feedback by proposing additional and improving existing interventions.

According to the MoCC, the Living Indus Initiative was launched in September 2022. It is an umbrella initiative and a call for action to lead and consolidate initiatives to restore the ecological health of the Indus within the boundaries of Pakistan. It has a “living menu” of 25 interventions, which are in line with global best practices with a focus on green infrastructure, nature-based solutions, flood-risk management and ecosystem-based adaptation approaches to protect, conserve and restore natural, freshwater, coastal and marine ecosystems, the MoCC said in a statement. The initiative is being undertaken in partnership with the United Nations and its Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).

Economic Affairs Minister Ayaz Sadiq, Industries Minister Murtaza Mahmud, Sindh’s Environment Minister Ismail Rahoo, UN Resident Coordinator in Pakistan Julien Harneis, FAO Representative in Pakistan Florence Rolle, and other officials concerned attended the steering committee meeting.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022