Pakistani Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz Wednesday called on the world community to take adequate measures for food, water and energy security, and work together to sustain economic development besides taking measures on environment issues.

Speaking at the inaugural session of the four-day 13th general assembly of the Asia Pacific Parliamentarians' Conference on Environment and Development (APPCED) here, Aziz said that the members of the Asia Pacific region must take a holistic approach to ensure water and food security through water preservation.

He said, "We need to evolve a comprehensive strategy to achieve sustainable development worldwide."

He said that there was need to address the issues of environmental challenges along with proper utilization of water resources.

Appreciating the efforts to organize the conference on the important subject of water conservation and sustainable development, Aziz said that in the wake of increasing demand for water, persistent droughts, water scarcity and environmental

pollution, the conference would be helpful and useful to prepare recommendations for water and food security.

He said that fresh water was globally becoming a scarce commodity and water deficit had emerged and was growing rapidly in recent times.

Aziz said that agricultural productivity, economic development and provision of clean drinking water and sanitation were the major challenges, therefore there was need to conserve water and find ways and means for its judicious use to face these challenges.

He said that consumption of water at the global level had been doubling every 20 years, more than twice the rate of the population growth.

He quoted experts as warning that if this trend remained unchecked, the world's fresh water demand might increase by over 50 percent by 2025.

He said that the increasing demand of water warranted a holistic management of fresh water, which is a finite and vulnerable resource.

"Integration of water projects within the framework of overall national economic and social policies is of utmost importance," he added. "We need to move from fragmented approaches towards an integrated water resources management."

Aziz said that there was need to improve indigenous technologies to efficiently utilize limited water resources and protect those resources against pollution.

Pollution of air and water, climatic change, shrinking fresh water reserves, and vanishing bio-diversity have disturbed the ecological balance, making it imperative for environmental and mainstream development agendas, he said.

Source: Xinhua