January 14, 2002	Monday	Shawwal 29, 1422

WHEN something so essential for human existence as water becomes scarce, it should be a matter of urgent and acute concern for all of us.

Nature has struck a balance which must be maintained between resources and demands. But with the rapid pace of technological advancement, the world has entered into a highly catastrophic phase from which it may not be easy to escape. In many areas monstrous constructions have encroached upon the waterways choking their flow. With the ever-widening gap between population growth and sources of water, there is an urgent need to give a serious thought to the present irrigation system.

Irrigation has been the main tool for advancement of societies for centuries. It has turned many of the earth’s war areas into important crop-producing regions. Egypt’s total crop production depends upon the Nile river or the underground aquifers. Today farming accounts for some 70 per cent of the global water use.

But with the population explosion all over the world, especially in the developing countries, irrigation has been badly affected. The world population has grown from 1.6 billion to more than five billion over the past 90 years. This has accentuated the problems arising from water scarcity. And therefore the balancing of water budget is badly needed for the maintenance of irrigation system.

In several parts of the world, water demands are exceeding the supply limits. Regional shortage of water forms another growing threat to agriculture. According to the FAO estimates, only 16 million hectors were added to the global irrigation based agriculture between 1980 and 1987 — an average of 2.3 million hectors per year, roughly half the rate of the 1970s.

There are various reasons for this slowdown. These include rapid urbanization, technological advancement, deforestation, global warming, decline in economic graph, climatic changes, droughts and floods, water-logging and salinity, soil conversion, inappropriate handling of the existing technologies, etc.

Apart from national calamities affecting water supply, poor management and exploitation of resources are to be also blamed for this situation. Unequal distribution of water between rich landowners and small farmers, political agents and their influence, bureaucratic involvement, industrialization, etc are involved in the emergence of serious problems in agrarian societies. In many parts of the world, the affluent landowners and government officials allocate heavy withdrawals from water reservoirs leaving poor peasants with little water for cultivation of their land.

The lack of basic knowledge and education to fully utilize existing water technology is also a barrier in water sustainability and decline in irrigated areas. In some places, surplus use of water destroys crops while in other parts, water scarcity is so acute that crops simply die. Every year because of bad planning and faulty management base, large portions of arable areas turn into wilderness.

Let us have a cursory glances at the problem. We may start with Pakistan which is faced with acute shortage of both irrigation water and water for domestic and industrial purposes. According to the Indus River System Authority [IRSA] estimates, the rabi crop needs around 36.4 million acre feet of water while the reserve stock is 18.73 maf. The extent of water shortage is alarming in big cities where water is usually supplied for two to four hours. Many parts of Karachi, even some posh areas, remain without water for days together. Tankers are generally hired to meet essential requirements.

We are also faced with poor management and unequal allocation of water among the provinces. This has led to serious conflicts among them. In big cities, industries are the main consumers of water. These include use of water for hydroelectric power. Such exploitation takes place in most Third World countries and arises mainly because of mismanagement and degradation of land. The natural water cycle has been vastly disturbed by unplanned water system and expanding deforestation.

Egypt depends entirely on the water of the Nile. But the river reached its lowest level in 1988 owing to low rainfall. While across the Suez Canal, the situation looks equally grim. Israel, Jordan and Syria get most of their water from Jordan river basin. The World Bank has predicted that the present water consumption will surely lead to a terrible situation in the future and the demand will exceed the limits of supply.

Thus we can easily reach the inescapable conclusion that if universal planning and programme for the sustainability of growing water demand, all over the world, is not made, if the unequal distribution continues and if the international donors continue to overlook their role in developing water reservoirs, dams and distribution channels in less developed countries, the existing water crisis will certainly take a new and a more dangerous turn. The time may not be far away when water scarcity will emerge as a global threat to human existence as its shortage has already reached an alarming level and the regional and local water conflicts may now turn into a full-fledged water wars. In such a situation, there is an urgent need for a new water resource development strategy to maintain and balance the future sustainability of water demands all over the world. As long as the present system of exploitation and monopolization by big powers over the resources of poor nations continue, no solution could be reached and no decisions implemented.