Pakistan’s Water Crisis Nothing But Poor Resource Management: Thousands have lived without love, not one without water. Considering very significance of water in planet earth, all plants and animals must have water to survive.
By Mudasar Faiz Memom
Thousands have lived without love, not one without water. Considering very significance of water in planet earth, all plants and animals must have water to survive. If there is no water there would be no life on earth. However, burgeoning water plight in the world have become menace not only for Homo-sapiens but also for all species.
Moreover, this sorry condition of water can be better with proper management. In this regards, many states have improved their aquatic conditions by taking effective measures with strong administration.
Unfortunately, Pakistan is a failed country in this regard. Severity of water in Pakistan can be judged by taking account from its inception, per capita availability of water was over 5000 cubic meters. In these days, the per capita availability of water has reduced to 1000 cubic meters. The implications of this shortage of water are alarming. Country is facing energy crisis constantly owing to shortage of water caused by improper management.
Agriculture sector has devastated due to this crisis, which contributes 21 percent of the Grand Domestic Product (GDP) of the country. Most importantly, this issue has brought unrest among the provinces besides affecting national integration. In addition, population explosion, urbanization, climate change and global warming have further aggravated the circumstances of country.
This situation of water scarcity has arisen owing to out dated water storage system and mismanagement of water resources by the government. No big dams have been contracted in recent years to store water. Even, already built dams, like, Mangla, Tarbela and Chashma have lost their water capacity up to 25 per cent due to silt.
Moreover, deficiency of small dams and reservoirs results wastage of rain water. Consequently, lacks of dams and improper management have given birth to energy crisis. Along with that, ineffective irrigation system has drastically impacted agriculture sector of country. However, agriculture system considered as back bone of Pakistan’s economy.
Besides, shortage and mismanagement of water have become bone of contention among federating units of Pakistan. Lower riparian provinces do not get their due amount of water as per 1991 water accord. Provinces keep on accusing one another of water theft. These confrontations of sates have badly impacted the national integration of country.
In the same fashion, population explosion has awfully affected the water requirement of Pakistan. There are multiple causes behind the exploding population such as illiteracy, lack of awareness and family planning. Rapid growth of population has reduced annual water availability per person which is huge challenge for country.
Related to this, urbanization is also paramount reason behind water crisis, as, requirement of water in urban areas is more compare to rural areas owing to commercial and industrial purposes. Therefore in most crowded cities, availability of water has become a grave issue which is not addressed by Pakistani government.
In the same context, climate change and global warming have become the alarming issues which have brought water scarcity in country. Melting of glaciers of Hamaliya has affected the flow of water into the Indus river system. Multiple implications of global warming have made water condition of country bad to worse due to improper storage and management system.
In addition, this issue has many environmental impacts such as, it has threatened existence of various plant and animal species. The number of plants has decreased owing to shortage of water, which in turn raised temperature of earth. Likewise, Pakistan is losing its wildlife and biodiversity due to constant water crisis and over sightedness of government.
As every crisis have its solutions, water crisis can be solved by some pragmatic measures such as; government should improve infrastructure to end water wastage. There must be proper lining of canals, so that seepage of water can be avoided. Moreover, its high time to improve water capacity by construction of dam’s government can improve. Construction of Basha dam should be completed on priority basis by taking consensus of all provinces.
Basha dam will not only store the water but, it will generate 4500 Mega Watt MW of cheap electricity as well. In the same manner, awareness campaign must be launched government in the whole country. This role can be done by media and civil society to convey message to public about the importance of water.
Besides, population growth must be controlled through family planning and legislation to ensure small family stem in the country. Educational institutions and media should play their part in making awareness campaign effective. Farmers should be trained from technical ways to know how to use limited water for agriculture purposes. These practical measures would surely help in resolution of this crisis.
Hence, there is no denying the fact that, there is no water crisis but there is crisis of management. Improper management gives birth to many crisis. Only healthy nations can improve their crisis like situation with their sincere and effective administration. Pakistan is a country which has not managed in true sprit since its inception.
No doubt, previous governments introduced few steps to curb water crisis. But, those steps were not up to the mark to deal with this monster dilemma. This issue must be dealt on priority basis by taking example from developed countries. It’s high time to nip this menace issue into the bud; it is only possible with collaborative efforts of civil society and government. The ray of hope is still alive; sooner, Pakistan will recover from water crisis by combating and implementing its real panaceas.
Originally published at Modern diplomacy