Water shortage

The UN and Pakistan’s Met department have predicted that Pakistan may be water scarce by 2025. Fortunately, a session arranged by the Planning Commission for key players in the water policy is aiding the government’s efforts to save water. It has played its first part by aiming to have Pakistan adopt the UN Decade of Action 2018-2028 for conservation of water. It is hoped that plan will help keep Pakistan’s water policies in check and will mitigate the water shortage. The UN plan and our national policy come aided with attention on a wide range of external issues, which include water pollution and the high range of diseases affiliated with water – a highly relevant problem in Pakistan due to the increase of malaria and hepatitis in Punjab and Sindh.

The session placed emphasis on solar desalination as a solution for water scarcity, especially in areas of Baluchistan. The desalination of seawater can bring enormous opportunities for Pakistan to meet growing agricultural and civil water requirements, and is a relief from dam-reliance solutions.

Maham Hussain ( Karachi )