PMD fears water shortages in Islamabad, Pindi

ISLAMABAD: Besides fearing drought in several parts of the country due to highly deficient rainfall, the Pakistan Meteorological Department has alerted the residents of Islamabad and Rawalpindi to the possibility of more water shortages in the days ahead.

The PMD has advised the government to undertake effective water management interventions to safeguard the agricultural and others sectors from the adverse impacts of the water crisis.

Recently, the government-run Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resources raised alarm by saying the country touched the ‘water stress line’ in 1990, crossed the ‘water scarcity line’ in 2005 and will see an ‘absolute water scarcity’ by 2025 if the authorities don’t take necessary interventions without delay.

Though some experts blame the crisis on population growth and urbanization and others on climate change, they all demand building of more water storage facilities to address the issue.

Confirming the PCEWR’s fears about deepening water crisis, the PMD National Drought Monitoring Centre director Ikramuddin said there is scanty rainfall since the start of the current year.

Ikramuddin said from “January to May the rainfall was 44.9 per cent below normal in most parts of the country.

The rainfall was 62 per cent below normal during the winter months (January-March) and 9.9 per cent below normal in April-May period.” He warned that the scanty rains have caused drought-like conditions in many parts of the country.

“The moderate-to-severe drought is prevailing in arid areas of Punjab, lower parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, southern Punjab, southwest Balochistan and southeast Sindh, while dry conditions have been observed in southern parts of the country during the last five months,” he said.

Ikramuddin said the dry conditions have caused water stress in the agricultural areas and thus, highlighting the demand for supplementary irrigation water for Kharif crops. “The water availability is low in most reservoirs. However, higher temperatures will improve water level in major dams,” he said.

Alerting the residents of Islamabad and Rawalpindi to the growing water shortages, the Drought expert said water in small dams located near the federal capital is at ‘critical low levels’. The problem has been further complicated by sinking tube wells and boring which is fast depleting the underground water, he said.

“There is a need for an immediate water resource management strategy to avoid negative impacts of deficit rainfall on water and agriculture sectors,” he said.