MUSCAT: Sultan Qaboos University, represented by the Water Research Centre in conjunction with the Department of Soils, Water and Agricultural Engineering (College of Agriculture and Marine Sciences) and the Ministry of Regional Municipalities and Water Resources (MRMWR), celebrated the World Water Day on March 25.
The main event was a scientific workshop entitled ‘Nature for Water’ organised under the patronage of Dr Ali bin Saud al Bimani, the Vice-Chancellor of the University.
Dr Osman Abdullah, Director of the Water Research Centre at SQU, said that the workshop brought scientists and engineers working in water science and applications who, in their talks and presentations, discussed about focusing attention on the importance of water exploring nature-based solutions to the water challenges we face on the 21st century.
The events focused on this year’s theme of World Water Day, ‘Nature for Water’ which explores how we can use nature to overcome the water challenges of the 21st century.
Dr Rashid bin Yahya al Abri, from the Ministry of Regional Municipalities and Water Resources, in his address, underlined the importance of nature-based solutions that have the potential to solve many of our water challenges.
Dr Georges Vachaud, Emeritus Senior Scientist, CNRS Centre National de la Reserche Scientifique, the National Center for Scientific Research, Paris, France, in his keynote address, spoke about ‘Sustainability of Fresh Water Resources within the Context of Climate Change.’
He said that environmental and social issues dealing with impacts of climate change on the water cycle would probably be one of the greatest problem to deal with in the forthcoming decades. Fresh water scarcity will be a very important challenge for economic and social development, in relation with development of urbanisation and agriculture.
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