This decline in water availability should surprise no one as sector experts have been predicting for decades now that unless appropriate mitigating measures are taken on an emergent basis, Pakistan would become a water-scarce country. In 2009, a report by the Woodrow Wilson International Centre for Scholars predicted that Pakistan would face water scarcity by 2035 - an estimate revised to 2025 by the International Monetary Fund, which in its report, noted a dismal supply of 191 MAF, with a projected demand of 274 MAF by 2025, culminating into a deficit of 83 MAF. The IMF report further claims that Pakistan has the world's fourth highest rate of water use and is already the third most water-stressed country in the world - statistics that should be a source of shame to the Musharraf, Zardari, Nawaz Sharif and the Abbasi administrations given their lack of focus on constructing reservoirs as well as taking other appropriate measures to deal with the situation that is assuming crisis proportions.
Pakistan's water resources, according to readily available research, are being degraded due to pollution, atrophy, overuse of surface water and over-exploitation of groundwater and "large tracts of land have been rendered uncultivable due to water logging and salinity, direct results of mismanaged irrigation. Unsafe drinking water is responsible for numerous diseases including dysentery, diarrhoea, typhoid, cholera, malaria and gastroenteritis. UNICEF estimates that 200,000 children in Pakistan die annually due to diarrhoeal diseases alone".
During a recent Public Accounts Committee meeting, Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) Chairman Lieutenant-General Muzamil Hussain (retd) acknowledged that Pakistan wastes 25 billion rupee worth of water every year and that while we receive 145 MAF each year we preserve only 14 MAF. He further contended that soil collection at the base of Tarbela Dam has compromised its storage capacity by 36 percent and noted that the construction of Diamer Bhasha dam was therefore critical. Mention was also made of the controversial Kalabagh dam plan as a means to deal with the water shortage, which understandably accounted for considerable anger amongst those from the smaller provinces who argued that only non-controversial projects should be supported.
Dr Young, lead water resource specialist at the World Bank, during a recent presentation maintained that "being water-scarce does not mean you cannot be water secure... and more important is how we use and manage water and is it being used most productively in the economy." In other words, there are measures that can be supported by the government designed to ensure productive use of water. Unfortunately, like other sectors suffering from maladministration, the water sector too has been subjected to poor governance: there is visible massive water wastage by the rich and influential, with no punitive fine imposed, while the poor are unable to access clean drinking water.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2017