International Water Management Institute (IWMI) Communication Specialist Amjad Jamal has emphasised the need to treat the media as a partner rather than an adversary in promoting public awareness of water and climate-related challenges.
IWMI urges stronger media engagement to promote water awareness
ISLAMABAD, Nov 03 (APP): International Water Management Institute (IWMI) Communication Specialist Amjad Jamal has emphasised the need to treat the media as a partner rather than an adversary in promoting public awareness of water and climate-related challenges.
“We must take the media as our friends, not our adversaries,” he said while addressing the second day of the sixth Pakistan Water Week 2026, a five-day international conference.
He described journalists as essential allies in translating research and scientific evidence into public understanding and, ultimately, better policymaking.
Amjad Jamal said IWMI had been actively engaging with bureau chiefs, editors and beat reporters to sensitise them to critical water and climate issues.
He cited the institute’s Environmental Journalists Quarterly Meetings, organised under CGIAR’s Policy Innovations Science Program and the FCDO-funded Water Resource Accountability in Pakistan programme, as a practical example of this engagement. Under these initiatives, journalists covering climate change, water and agriculture are taken on field visits to interact with beneficiaries and relevant stakeholders and observe project sites where IWMI has installed scientific instrumentation.
He said such field engagements enabled journalists to witness interventions firsthand, interact with communities and develop evidence-based stories reflecting ground realities.
He stressed that direct exposure to projects and the experiences of beneficiaries could help strengthen media coverage by ensuring that reporting was informed by firsthand information and credible evidence.
