5th Meeting of Steering Committee on Nomination of Karez Cultural Landscape of Balochistan in the World Heritage List – December 01, 2021
The 5th meeting of steering committee on nomination of karez cultural landscape of Balochistan in the world heritage list was held in the PCRWR, Headquarter, Islamabad on 1st December, 2021. In which the different stakeholders from different departments of Balochistan participated. Dr. Muhammad Ashraf, Chairman, PCRWR welcomed the guests and briefed about the agenda of the meeting and the importance of the Karez system for the Balochistan and different water policies and frame work for the better management of the water in the water scarce province of the country.
Ms. Patricia Mc Phillips Country Director, UNESCO appreciated the work of PCRWR and emphasized the importance of rehabilitation of Karez system for the sustainable agriculture and water resources for Balochistan. She briefed the participants about the salient features of the ongoing projects of UNESCO in Balochistan. Dr. Muhammad Ashraf described the agenda item for the stakeholder’s consultation and emphasized on the importance of the consultation and how the policies on water resource management can be strengthened and implemented in Balochistan. Secretary Culture and tourism Balochistan Muhammad Asgher Arifal, on behalf of Additional Chief secretary Balochistan Chaired the meeting and discussed about the cultural and potential tourism sites in the Balochistan. He also highlighted the different projects which are being submitted to the government for the culture and heritage developments in Balochistan.
The participants from the different departments like Agriculture, Environment, PHED, Irrigation, Forest etc. presented their views about the available policy instruments and their implementation process. UNESCO representative also briefed the participants about the process of nomination of Karez cultural landscape of Balochistan in World Heritage list and timeline of the process.
At the end, the chair Thanked the Participants and all participants appreciated PCRWR work related to water and agreed to share the data related to karez as soon as possible so that it could be nominated in world heritage list.