ISLAMABAD, Dec 10: Participants of an international conference on Friday pledged to make concerted efforts to put people ahead in governance at all levels by securing their rights to sustainable development.

The 7th Sustainable Development Conference, organized by Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI), concluded here at a local hotel. Some 150 delegates from 18 countries participated in the conference.

Questions about governance and sustainable development were taken up at several inter-related levels: in the context of Third World countries; in terms of the relationship with first world institutions, and within and between Third World countries.

SDPI Executive Director Dr Saba Gul Khattak said it was imperative to understand and respect dissent. She said it was a matter of great concern that despite globalization, room for dissent and alternative thinking was shrinking.

SDPI Board of Governors Chairman Shamsul Mulk stressed that recurrence of mistakes and lapses committed in the past must be checked for prosperity and better future of children.

Earlier, during the session on "Governance and Electronic Media", panelists felt that there was a massive communication gap between citizens and local governments despite efforts made by the Governance and Media Cell of the National Reconstruction Bureau.

It was also stressed that awareness about the local bodies system could only be created with the involvement of local media. Syed A.Siraj, chairperson of Department of Mass Communication at the Allama Iqbal Open University, said gratification approach had brought about fragmentation in the society, leading to "information pollution".

In the session on "Pakistan's Energy Future: Is Nuclear Energy the Answer?", Chief Economist Dr Pervez Tahir said nuclear energy made up only 0.9 per cent of the overall electricity generation. He said with a GDP growth rate of eight per cent, shortage of power was expected in the coming years.

He said nuclear energy was not harmful to environment compared to conventional thermal power plants because of absence of toxic emissions of carbon dioxides and sulphur oxides.

In response, Dr A.H. Nayyar and Fahd Ali from the SDPI presented their study on the economics of nuclear energy that showed that nuclear energy was more expensive than conventional thermal energy.

They said cost of nuclear energy was 10.5 cents per unit compared to 8.2 cents per unit cost of thermal energy. Nuclear energy is, hence, not an affordable response to energy deficit, they said.

Surendra Gadekar, from Anumukti, India, said even if theoretically, nuclear power plants were supposed to be safe, a catastrophe might occur because of defects in the construction or lacks of sufficient safety measures.

His research showed that nuclear energy was very harmful to health. Numerous accidents had occurred in India. Moreover, he noticed a much higher incidence of deformations and cancers in a village next to a power plant than in other villages in the same area.

Mehmood A. Khwaja of the SDPI discussed "Extended Producer's Responsibility in Pakistan" and reiterated the principle of "Producer Take Back" in order to support waste reduction and recycling.

He emphasized that it was the manufacturer's primary responsibility to reshape his product and pay the price for recycling by managing product prices. M.Irfan Khan, assistant professor at the Allama Iqbal Open University, reviewed issues related to water governance and suggested a number of options to improve efficiency in water usage.

Cai Kui from Yunnan University, China, suggested an environment construction strategy based on the improvement of poor communities' livelihood, and increasing community and government participation.