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ater shortage is one of the most pressing environmental issues Pakistan faces. According to International Institute for Sustainable Development, Pakistan is already a water-stressed country. Its population has increased fourfold since 1947. Meanwhile, the country’s water storage capacity is limited to 30 days. The increasing population and water mismanagement in the agriculture sector are pushing Pakistan towards water scarcity.
The country loses more than 60 per cent of its freshwater water supply during transportation and application in agricultural fields due to poor maintenance of the irrigation system and conventional farming methods. An exponential increase in population is sharply reducing per-capita water availability in Pakistan. Thus, there is a dire need for us to apply innovative solutions to solve water crisis in Pakistan. We must execute innovative solutions to transform our urban areas into water efficient places. We have what it takes to make this happen. Our fight against climate change will be fought in our cities. It is crucial for us to prepare our cities to mitigate water shortage both in the present and in the future.
Here is a lesson from Japan. According to a Kyoto University research paper:
Fukuoka city in Japan faced a severe drought in 1978. This pushed the city administration to think out-of-the-box to manage its water resources more efficiently. The city started using reclaimed water for toilet flushing. This simple and effective solution can facilitate Pakistan in increasing water efficiency and to do more with less.
Reclaimed water is treated municipal wastewater that we can use for purposes like landscape irrigation, industrial processes and toilet flushing. US states of California, Florida, Arizona, Texas and Nevada are already using reclaimed water to achieve improved productivity and to preserve water.
Assuming each flushing in toilet consumes about 5 litres of water and 100 million people in Pakistan flushes their toilet just once each day. Thus, we use over 500 million litres of water each day to get rid of human waste. In a month’s time, we would use 15,000 million (or 15 billion) litres of water just to get rid of human excrete. Now imagine, if 100 million people in Pakistan use reclaimed water for toilet flushing just like Fukuoka city in Japan, we can save over 182 billion litres of water each year that could be used to mitigate water scarcity.
An economically strong, climate-resilient and socially equitable Pakistan requires sufficient water for both today and tomorrow.
RainStick Shower, a Canadian company, has developed a shower solution capable of using 80 percent less water and energy than a conventional shower system. A conventional shower uses roughly 26 gallons of water. A RainStick Shower, however, only uses 5 gallons of water per shower while producing the same experience as a conventional shower. Thus, it uses almost 21 gallons less water per shower than conventional shower system. Altogether, 100 million people showering once a day could save 2.1 billion gallons of water per day. Over a year’s time, the water saving would be roughly over 766 billion gallons of water. There are 3.7 litres in a gallon. Thus, 766 billion gallons of water would be a whooping 2.83 trillion litres of water. Adding 182 billion litres of water saving through switching to reclaimed water in toilet flushing, the collective water saving would be over a whooping 3 trillion litres of water each year in Pakistan.
Turning the tap off while brushing teeth alone can save as much as 6 litres of water every minute. Now imagine, if 100 million people just keep the tap off for a minute while brushing their teeth, they can save 600 million litres of water each day and 219 billion litres of water each year.
Using reclaimed water for toilet flushing and implementing water-efficient showers might appear to be minor steps in our fight against water shortage. However, their collective effect is tremendous. We cannot take such actions for granted. There is a dire need for the parliament to make laws that encourage all segments of our society to conserve water and to do more with less. Water conservation is extremely crucial, as without adequate water supplies, we cannot achieve anything.
An economically strong, climate-resilient and socially equitable Pakistan will require sufficient water both today and tomorrow. We must do all we can to conserve water and make the most of each drop.
The writer is a Stockholm-based policy analyst and the founder/ operations manager of Project Green Earth (www.projectge.org). He can be reached at aubhameediyahoo.com.