2019(20) Session Events

World Soil Day 2019

World Soil Day Marked in UoP

The Environment Society (EnvSoc) of the University of Peshawar organised a seminar to mark the United Nations (UN) designated World Soil Day that is celebrated every year on 5 December. This year the theme is ‘Stop Soil Erosion, Save Our Future’. More than 300 participants mainly students of various departments were present on this occasion.

At the start of the seminar, Dr Asif Khan Khattak, Organiser of the UoP EnvSoc, welcomed all the speakers and participants. In his introduction to World Soil Day, he said, “Climate change is a major cause of soil erosion.” He also highlighted the importance of sustainable soil management as a big step to achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly SDG2 ‘Zero Hunger’. He thanked all the participants for their active involvement and great enthusiasm shown.

Speaking at the occasion, Prof Dr M. Nafees from UoP said that soil contamination with chemicals is a major problem which needs to be tackled. “Greater concentrations of copper from fungicides are severely contaminating the soils in the peach orchids and the wheat crops that are grown there” he added.

Another speaker, Dr Ishaq Ahmad from the University of Agriculture, explained the different ways in which soil erosion has been prevented in various districts of KP. He said, “We have constructed mini-dams, water storage reservoirs and spill-ways to conserve soil in many parts of KP”.

Mr Abid Sarwar from the Soil Survey of KP showed various regions of KP that have been severely affected by soil erosion. He mentioned that “Long term planning is essential for land use to avoid soil erosion”.

Research students of the Department of Environmental Sciences, UoP, Mr Zia Ullah and Ms Tasneem Sarwar presented the findings of their respective research projects on soil contamination and plant-soil interactions respectively.

This event was covered in Pakistan's well reputed newspapers of 'Dawn' https://www.dawn.com/news/1520659, 

and 'The News' https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/579265-world-soil-day-observed-across-kp

The welcome address and the presentation given by the Organiser can be viewed here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1TkwlEu7kw0gVkKNBq3s40LSQNMdAOOmb/view?usp=sharing