Srinagar: Several renowned scientists from different parts of the country and abroad on Tuesday joined an international webinar organised by the University of Kashmir to mark the World Water Day-2022 celebrations.
The day-long webinar was organised by the Department of Environmental Science in line with this year’s theme for the day—‘Groundwater: Making the Invisible Visible’.
Dean Academic Affairs Prof Farooq Masoodi, who inaugurated the webinar, emphasised on the importance of water conservation and called for sustainable development policymaking to address the ‘raging’ water crisis across the world.
Prof Irshad Nawchoo Dean Research KU presided over the valedictory function and stressed on conservation and management of water by way of good governance initiatives.
Dean School of Earth and Environmental Sciences Prof Shamim Ahmad Shah said this day reminds us of our collective responsibility—at individual and institutional levels—to conserve groundwater for the greater good of the society, in particular for critical areas including economy, agriculture, industry etc.
Prof Fayaz Ahmad, HoD Environmental Science and Webinar Director highlighted the role of academic institutions in raising awareness regarding water conservation and protection of water resources.
Dr Samiullah Bhat, webinar coordinator, delivered the introductory remarks and highlighted the importance of UN Sustainable Development Goal 6, while Dr Arshid Jehangir, Organising Secretary, presented a vote of thanks.
The inaugural session was followed by technical sessions wherein renowned scientists delivered their lectures on different themes related to the World Water Day-2022. These included Dr David Molden, ex-Director ICIMOD USA who talked about downstream impacts of climate change on mountains and Dr Larry Stevens, also from USA, who talked about groundwater influences on spring geomorphology and ecosystem ecology.
In another session, Dr Sumit Sen from IIT Roorkee gave a detailed talk on ground water perspective and on understanding the information and knowledge from the hidden underground flows and Prof Wolfgang Kinzelbach from Zurich Switzerland who gave an overview on sustainable management of groundwater resources.
Er Ashwin Pandya from ICID New Delhi talked about issues and challenges related to water resource development while Dr Jyothi Prasad from Uttrakhand stressed on “making this groundwater resource visible from invisible”.
He also emphasised on research which is oriented towards sustainable water solutions.
Dr Aasimah Tanveer and Dr Moieza Ashraf moderated the technical sessions.

KR Desk