In a madcap world seized with arms race for decimation of humanity, little attention is dedicated to water for sustaining life. Swelling numbers of humans pose an existential threat to a finite resource. Agriculture, energy, industrialisation and urbanisation drain much of the water at the expense of nature’s own survival.

As more water is being diverted to meet the greed of human race, nature’s own thirst is left unquenched. As a corollary, forests and pastures are vanishing and the earth is losing its green cloak. Concomitant to that, an irresponsible and unsustainable use of water is also shrinking the blue cover of earth. Rivers, wetlands, lakes and oceans are getting perennially polluted.

It is estimated that up to 90 per cent of all waste water in developing countries is discharged untreated directly into water bodies. All these facts are generating anxiety yet actions are sluggish and do not match the pace. Against this grim backdrop, the United Nations’ World Water Development Report 2015 "water for a sustainable world" discusses how different sectors of life are becoming thirsty that puts human life in jeopardy.

According to some reports, global gross domestic product rose at an average of 3.5 per cent per year from 1960 to 2012. This economic growth has been achieved at a significant social and environmental cost. Countries are eager not only to sustain but accelerate this pace of economic growth. This will not be possible without consuming fresh water.

Global water demand for the manufacturing industry is estimated to increase by 400 per cent from 2000 to 2050. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) "Environmental Outlook to 2050" estimates that in the manufacturing industry alone, the share of total water demand by 2050 is expected to increase from 7 to 22 per cent. The water demand increase in newly emerging BRICS block will be sevenfold, while in developing countries it will come close to increasing by 400 per cent.

Population growth is another factor challenging the sustainable use of water resources. However, water demand is not linear to population growth factor. For example over the last decades, the rate of demand for water was twice higher than the rate of population growth. It is mainly because of unsustainable water use practices specially in the rich countries. The world’s population is growing by about 80 million people per year. It is anticipated to cross nine billion by 2050.

Excessive water withdrawals for agriculture and energy can further exacerbate water scarcity. The current growth rate of agriculture is already dwarfing the threshold of sustainability. To meet food and fibre needs by 2050, agriculture will need to produce 60 per cent more food globally, and 100 per cent more in developing countries. The agricultural sector is the largest guzzler of water resources, accounting for approximately 70 per cent of all freshwater withdrawals globally, and over 90 per cent in larger part of the least-developed world.

Freshwater withdrawals for energy production, which currently account for 15 per cent of the world’s total, are likely to increase by 20 per cent by 2035. At the global level, energy demand is projected to increase by one third by 2035, with demand for electricity expected to grow by 70 per cent over the same period. Since 90 per cent of thermal power is water intensive, the estimated 70 per cent increase in electricity production by 2035 would translate into approx. 20 per cent increase in freshwater withdrawals.

Other sectors also have similar requirements for water in terms of proportions. By 2030, the world is projected to face a 40 per cent global water deficit under the business-as-usual scenario. The situation is likely to be further aggravated by poor governance. Almost one third to half of the water supply projects do not perform after some initial period and fail after two to five years. About one third of water supply points are non-functioning, with another 10 to 20 per cent being only partially functional. Data collated by the Rural Water Supply Network indicate an average rate of 36 per cent non-functionality for hand pumps across 21 countries in sub-Saharan Africa. This level of failure costs a total investment of between US$1.2 billion and US$1.5 billion in the last 20 years.

As water becomes a scarce resource, it triggers new conflicts. Inter-state and intra-state conflicts are dotting the world map. It is alarming that 158 of the world’s 263 trans-boundary water basins lack any type of cooperative management framework. Shared waters are emerging as a major causative factor behind social and political conflicts in societies adding to their fragility that perpetuates conflicts.

Water scarcity is also taking a toll on human life. A significant part of humankind is deprived of minimum water required to maintain their health and hygiene. The seventh target of the Millennium Development Goals was to halve, by 2015, the proportion of the population without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation.

WHO and UNICEF joint monitoring programme for water supply and sanitation reports impressive gains made over the last two decades -- some 2.3 billion people gaining access to an improved drinking water source and 1.9 billion to an improved sanitation facility. However, a significant number is still deprived of these basic facilities as 748 million do not use an improved source of drinking water and 2.5 billion are deprived of an improved sanitation facility including 946 million people who are still practicing open defecation. The improved drinking water facility however does not guarantee access to safe drinking water. Approx. 1.8 billion people drink water contaminated with E-coli, an indicator of faecal contamination.

Pakistan’s own water scenario is not much different from the global vista. Per capita water availability is dwindling very fast due to unabated population growth and silting up reservoirs. Water losses are staggering due to anachronistic infrastructure and water use practices. The cropping pattern is incongruent to water availability and crop markets are controlled by cartels. The agriculture sector is losing its luster and policy makers have little sense of a creeping crisis.

The whole approach towards the water problem is supply-driven. Rather than contemplating multidimensional and multi-sectoral solution of the problem, everyone prescribes the antibiotic of constructing new large dams mainly Kalabagh dam. Hardly anyone talks of conserving more than one third of the annual flows lost to seepage and archaic irrigation and agriculture practices. Official data shows astounding loss of 65 million acre feet (MAF) in the system. It includes 32 MAF percolating down in the saline water pockets; rendering it unrecoverable for any other use. This amounts to storage capacity of nearly five Kalabagh dams.

Pakistan’s per capita water availability has perilously tumbled from 5294 cubic meters per person in 1951 to little over 1000 cubic meters today. However, it is not because water is being siphoned out of our system but mainly because our population has bloated from 34 million to 180 million during the corresponding years. While water cannot be created, population can be controlled. It is not a politically enticing idea, therefore it attracts little attention.

Pakistan is among countries that have low water productivity. Pakistan’s productivity per unit of water is only 0.13 kg per cubic meter, which is almost one third of neighbouring India where water productivity is 0.39 kg/m^3. China’s productivity is even higher i.e. 0.82 kg/m³. Likewise productivity per unit of land is another ignored parameter.

Pakistan produces 2.65 metric tons of wheat per hectare which is lower than 2.91 MT/hec of India. Ukraine and Uzbekistan produce 3.09 and 4.43 metric tons of wheat per hectare respectively. Pakistan produces 3.64 MT/hec of rice compared to 4 MT/hec in Bangladesh and 4.73 in Indonesia.

The cropping pattern is another area demanding serious attention. Pakistan grows rice on 2.8 million hectares and sugarcane on 1.1 million hectares. Both are water-greedy crops requiring 1500 mm and 1800 mm of water compared to only 480 mm consumed by wheat. Since agriculture industry and markets are captured by elite, cropping pattern is not being altered for new realities.

The country ought to veer its lens from an engineering-based supply-driven approach to conservation and improvised management of water. Pakistan still has room to manage its water challenge if water managers adopt an apt approach and shun their obduracy and fixation with supply driven unsustainable solutions.