Sustainable water consumption practices in textile sector to address the unruly patterns of resource consumption stressed the experts at a seminar held by World Wide Fund for Nature-Pakistan

The seminar was part of the International Labour and Environmental Standards (ILES) Application in Pakistan’s SMEs project, funded by the European Union and being implemented by WWF-Pakistan in collaboration with the International Labour Organization (ILO) and also the World Water Week to be observed from 27th of August till 1st September in Stockholm Sweden.

Addressing issues and challenges from all parts and countries of the world from low, middle and high-income viewpoint the theme of World Water Week was “water and waste: reduce and reuse” from a holistic system.

WWF-Pakistan going to present a research paper titled “Sustainable management practices to the textile industry for growing economy”, by Sohail Ali Naqvi Senior Project Officer WWF-Pakistan focused on analysis of implementation of Multi Environment Agreements (MEAs) regarding benefits and sustainable practices in textile industry.

Textile industry in Pakistan underwrites 8.5% of the GDP and 52% of exports and most of the industry is failed to implement approved MEA, according to the research. The textile industry consumes more water than needed and discharge untreated polluted water into the local water bodies.

The study also revealed that lack of awareness is responsible for not implementing of sustainable practices. If an industry invests € 10,000 in interventions it could save more than 110,000m3 of water on an annual basis with 10% to 15% reduction in water pollution.

Hammad Naqi Khan, CEO WWF-Pakistan strained that water cycle of local industries needs water optimization to comfort current burdens on water resources.

“We need to understand that the water challenges we are tangled in today and rather than being part of the problem be a part of the solution,” he said.

“Our primary focus should be on the strategic development of increasing the efficiency of our textile sector with small water tracks after being declared as water stressed country”, Naqi added.

Anisul Haq Secretary General All-Pakistan Textile Mill Association said that textile industries need to act fast against growing challenge of water shortages. He said more investment is needed from industries in technologies for water efficient, zero discharge of hazardous waste and harvest water from rain. He also said industrial sector was equally responsible for the conservation and treatment of water.

“It is better to invest less on conservation than to spend much more on treatment,” Haq said.

The World Water Week 2017 focuses on key challenges precisely on two Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s) counting improvement of water quality by reducing pollution, dropping dumping and minimizing release of hazardous chemicals and materials, halving the proportion of untreated wastewater and substantially increasing recycling and safe reuse globally