Out of water

If the latest report of the Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resources (PCRWR) is to be believed, Pakistan could face drought after reaching the level of absolute scarcity by the year 2025. This grim report claims that the country touched water stress line in 1990 before crossing the water scarcity line in 2005. Pakistan has the world’s fourth highest rate of water use, but is dependent on water from a single source, the Indus River Basin in India. With the decline in rainfall, the problem of water shortage has turned quite serious.

In order to tackle the problem, the government is planning to double water storage capacity to at least 28 MAF from existing 14 MAF by building a network of small, medium and large-sized reservoirs in the country in an ambitious move to deal with impending shortages in an agricultural based economy. By adopting a concrete water policy, the government will ensure effective management and the conservation of existing water resources. A lot more is needed to be done to meet critical municipal, agricultural, energy, and food security needs, besides addressing environmental concerns.

Khan Faraz

Peshawar