DefinePK

Abstract

The growing steps of the economy of any country are; primary production, technological and services based economy. So the economic development of any country depends on resource utilization, government policies, environmental sustainability, science and technology and awareness of the latest tools for the economics. As Pakistan�s population is growing, the trend of urbanization is increasing in the country. With the increase of urbanization, businesses are expanding which are also creating problems and challenges for the modern world for the sustainability of the natural resources. Pakistan has the 9th largest labor force in the world with 59.6 million workers. Textile sector is one of the most water and energy intensive, polluting, and energy consuming sectors in Pakistan. Pakistan is the 8th largest textile products exporter from Asia and 12th globally; it contributes 8.5% of the country�s GDP and 52% in exports. There are about 1545 textile processing SMEs in Pakistan, of which the majority are situated in the Punjab province i.e. 1395 (Pak. EPA, 2010). Water is an important utility in the wet processing of textile units. Most of the industries abstract ground water (except the industries residing in the Karachi) and discharge directly into the water bodies directly and indirectly without treatment. Although the water in Punjab is going down due to over abstraction and lack of water policy, but still the groundwater is used in the industries as a common practice. Energy is another important utility in textile mills. Mostly self generation of electricity is the source in large and medium textile mills because of the shortfall or the energy crisis in the country. So the industries prefer to use some alternative resource for the continuous supply of the electricity to their industries for the production and timely delivery of the orders. This paper will share the experience of WWF-Pakistan�s project entitled �City-wide partnership for sustainable water use and water stewardship in SMEs of Lahore, Pakistan� in collaboration with WWF-UK and Cleaner Production Institute (CPI) funded by EU. It will show how the natural resources in the industrial premises could be saved by adopting stewardship tools and with some simple practices named Best Water Management Practices (BWMPs). It will also highlight the cost-benefit analysis by adopting these BWMPs with business case in the textile sector. It will also recommend the partnership of stakeholders for conserving and managing the resources sustainably.