ISLAMABAD, Aug 28: Pakistan lacks enough water resources to meet present and future demands and is fast approaching the critical threshold of chronic water stress, generally believed to be 1,000 cubic meters per capita per annum, remarks UNDP in the book “Water: A Vital Source of Life” released by the United Nations System in Pakistan here on Thursday.

Calling this an alarming situation “which must be brought to a halt and reversed”, the UN agency finds it particularly worrying that “not only is there over-exploitation of ground water resources but also a great deal of it is wasted”.

The publication marks the celebration of 2003 that has been declared by the UN General Assembly as “the international year of freshwater” to emphasise the role that freshwater plays in the ecological systems as well as in the process of development.

The UN Information Centre, Islamabad, had organised a meeting which was attended by officials of UN system, journalists from different places and students. Minister of state for environment Tahir Iqbal was in the chair.

Greater increase in population of Pakistan over the last two decades was definitely putting further strain on meagre water resources for all three main users, i.e. agriculture, industry and households including drinking water.

“All water users are affected but it is the poor who bear the brunt,” the UNDP points out, noting that the deficit in year 2001 was estimated to be about 8.1 billion cubic metres (BCM), which was expected to swell to 18.3 BCM in 2004.

It, therefore, underlined the need to create awareness on judicious use of water resources and to educate the general public that a free gift of nature though, water is neither infinite nor inexhaustible.

The way to tackle the insufficiency of water lay in increasing its availability through conservation and recycling as well as ensuring consistent policies and increase the budgetary allocations for water sector, it stressed.

The book published in Urdu and English comprises a diverse collection of chapters by different writers on the problems of each province of Pakistan related to water and sanitation as well as writings and paintings done by school children and messages from various personalities of the government. Pakistan, Mr Onder Yucer, UNDP Representative in Pakistan said, was home to the mighty Indus river system and endowed with a wealth of natural freshwater assets. Nevertheless, it faces important questions surrounding the usage and storage of fresh water.

He said access to clean drinking water for all peoples, regardless of social and economic background, was a basic challenge faced by Pakistan. The problems of disease and illness caused by inadequate water supply, sanitation and hygiene occur regularly and on a scale that is “worrisome”, Mr Yucer observed.