Meeting of Himalayan states under way in Bengaluru
SHILLONG: H M Shangpliang, MLA from Mawsynram presented a short video on the nature of rain of wettest place on earth, the effect of climate change on the oranges, the bees and the livelihoods of the people during the meeting of Himalayan states on climate change held at Bengaluru on Thursday.
He offered water harvesting solutions that can be adopted by the hill people.
Highlighting water scarcity in the state, Shangpliang said that a parliamentary and legislature forum should be constituted to bring all round development in the Himalayan region.
During the meeting, the chairperson, Meghalaya State Council for Climate Change & Sustainable Development, Ferlin Sangma spoke of the initiatives that Meghalaya State Council for Climate Change & Sustainable Development has done through the setting up of the climate change centre, preparation of the state action plan for climate change, developing project proposals, and providing technical and knowledge support to state agencies.
Tura MP Agatha Sangma who spoke on the global crisis of water and the need for all states to have a water policy and integrate it with the Jal Shakti Ministry of Govt of India. She urged for reduction in ecological footprints and for polluting companies to take responsibility of the mess they have created.
The Sustainable Water Future Programme (SWFP) of Future Earth international conference on Climate Change titled ‘Towards a Sustainable Water Future’ was inaugurated on September 24 at IISc Bengaluru by Rajiv Pratap Rudi MP. Those who were present include PD Rai Former MP, Prof Olcay University Vice Chair UN-Water, Geneva, Switzerland, Prof Andras Sollozi-Nagy, Chair SWFP and Prof Anurag Kumar, Director IISc in the presence of a large number of national and international scientists, top officials and luminaries.
A high level round table conference for legislators of the Himalayan region was attended by MPs, MLAs and representatives from Uttarakhand, Ladakh, Sikkim, Arunachal, Nagaland, Mizoram, Meghalaya and members of IMI, World Bank, United Nations University and officials from national and international institutes of excellence.
The members discussed at length the local water issues as evidenced by increase water scarcity, widespread water pollution, and rapid decline in freshwater biodiversity. They explored different innovative frameworks, approaches and methods to determine the potential of natural and human made infrastructure investment, and their complementarities to achieve sustainable solutions enhancing water security and resilience of the socio-ecological system.
They offered ideas for the design, implementation and evaluation of water at different levels and the potential for setting up a Mountain Solution Centre that will integrate solutions for the region.
The conference to be concluded on September 27 is being hosted by the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru in partnership with Futureearth, Waterfuture and Divecha Centre for Climate Change and attended by700 participants from across the globe.
The session will have 6 plenaries and 45 parallel sessions and an additional 20 special sessions, 5 high level round table policy dialogues and 10 themes with 6 cross cutting themes.The meet will address the current state of global water resource challenges, future pathways and scenarios, and different technological, institutional solutions to accelerate the implementation of water-related sustainable development goals and the 2030 agenda targets with an aim of ‘leaving no one behind’.