March 02, 2007	Friday	Safar 12, 1428

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RAWALPINDI, March 1: Pakistan’s water resource is drying up because of bad water use practices in the country and what little remains is getting heavily polluted, warns a report.

“Use practices will have to be changed if Pakistan is to survive the next few decades”, says the report titled “Pakistan’s Waters at Risk”, prepared by World Wildlife Fund (WWF).

Endorsed by six NGOs, the report suggests that with financial constraints and a water resource problem across the country, it is imperative that the service providers move towards better water management practices.

In addition, water conservation, re-use, and industrial water recycling are areas that are crucial in any water scarce country.

Better management practices can also be used in agricultural sector such as switching from high delta crops to those crops requiring less water inputs etc. There should be an incentive based public campaign emphasising the need to conserve water at all levels.

In households, leaking taps, tank overflows, irresponsible use of potable water for washing cars and watering lawns and plants must account for a significant proportion of non revenue water.

According to the WWF report, the government only contributes about 0.2 per cent of the GDP to this sub-sector for both urban and rural development. This equates to only 0.8 per cent of total government expenditure on public health facilities.

Water and sanitation providers being mainly public sector organizations, the quality of service is below the minimum required. In the situation, funds provided for improvement have to be spent in the most efficient manner, the report emphasises.

Most of the urban water supply and sewerage systems are old and decrepit. Physical leakages in water supply distribution systems are high, often accounting for the loss of more than 40 per cent of water production.

WWF says further investment is needed to keep the existing infrastructure intact by continuing rehabilitation and asset replacement.

But the Asian Development Bank has observed that in Pakistan the expansion of water sector investments is hindered by - apart from frequent disagreement among the federal and four provincial governments - the lack of capacity for sector planning and strong management to take on new projects.

“Sometimes it seems as if Pakistan is not one country but several under a weak federal organisation,” an ADB publication quoted its director of Central and West Asian Department Katsuji Matsunami as saying.

WWF report also notes that underground sewerage networks, are in a state of disrepair in most cities and towns resulting in sewage leakages and consequently pollution of underwater aquifers and water supplies.

Government funding is limited and competed for by numerous other sectors. To meet even a fraction of the capital investment requirements, finance will need to be drawn from other sources. These sources include foreign aid, commercial loans, and private investments.