Water Scarcity In Pakistan

Zain Mushtaq

Ms. Aqila Zaman

SS 100

26th October 2015

Water Scarcity Is A Looming Problem For Pakistan, But It Is Not Getting The Attention It Deserves.

Thousands have lived without love but not one has lived without water. What W.H Auden said is quite true, and in fact if this statement is not taken seriously we are most likely to lead Pakistan into a dead hole. Most Pakistanis know a lot about the country's energy crisis and its consequences on the economy. However, hardly a handful know or even talks about the much greater looming threat of water scarcity in Pakistan. The water crisis has much larger consequences; it constitutes one of the biggest challenges to Pakistan's survival, has caused disastrous effects all around the nation and

Per capita annual water availability in Pakistan has dropped, fundamentally due to population growth, from 5,600 cubic meters at independence to the current level of 1,017 cubic meters, and is projected to decline further under the current infrastructure and institutional conditions (Iqbal). Demand for water consumption rises persistently while supply remains stagnant, which leads to the situation of shortage in all regions. A major chunk of the population lacks access to clean drinking water. Furthermore increased irrigation and exploitation of groundwater have resulted in poor water quality as it is becoming more and more saline. Unsafe drinking water is the cause of many diseases. The United Nations Children’s Fund estimates that 200000 children in Pakistan die annually due to diarrheal diseases caused by impure water (Kamal). Many lands have become unproductive and infertile due to logging and salinity, which are caused by mismanagement of irrigation. Simi Kamal at Asia Pacific Regional Consultation in Dhaka said that Pakistan’s Mangrove forests, previously some of the largest in the world, have been reduced from 0.6 million to 0.25 million acres (Kamal). Related industries are affected adversely. Moreover due to the shortage of water, agriculture production has gone down too which means that yield of main crops to fulfill both domestic and international has

The solution lies in building more dams. Mr. Abid Sher Ali, State minister of water and power, said “If Pakistan doesn’t think seriously about the construction of dams, its soil will become infertile in the future” (Razzaq). Water should be priced and taxed. People don’t generally pay for water so there is less incentive to avoid wastage. As a result rich farmers flood their farmlands with water and big industries consume more than they actually need. There are many loopholes in the taxation system through which people evade taxes. Pricing strategy for major crops is uniformly based and thus doesn’t reflect differential water consumption like rice consumes more water than cotton. Tariffs for water utilities for consumption in households are quite low and have not been revised for several years. Tariff collection varies across cities. Taxes earned would be used to improve infrastructure required to manage water efficiently as there are leaky canals and dams. Canal water through which a very high volume of Pakistan’s farmland is irrigated is highly underpriced. The Government needs to take proper measures. More effective and sound budget planning is required to target this issue. Large-scale awareness and participation by all those who affect and are affected by water scarcity are of immense importance to improve infrastructure that can ultimately lead to minimum resource