ISLAMABAD, Nov 29: Pakistan has reached the water scarcity threshold of 1,000 cubic metres per person a year and has been ranked among the worst performers in Asia in terms of water use, capacity and quality although water has been on President Musharraf’s priority agenda for eight years.
“In terms of water resource availability, the per capita total actual renewable water resources value reduced from 2,961 cubic metre a year in 2000 to 1,420 cubic metre in 2005… and just a little over 1,000 cubic metre per year in 2006-07, fractionally over the scarcity threshold,” according to “Asia Water Development Outlook 2007” report of the Asian Development Bank.
Released on Thursday, the report describes access to water and the water resource in Pakistan as ‘good’ and ‘fair’, respectively, and ranks the country at the 17th position among 23 developing countries in the index of drinking water adequacy (IDWA).
The report said Pakistan was already in the water stress league, the water stress threshold being defined as renewable water resources below 1,700 cubic metres per person per year “and will shortly be in the water scarcity league”.
It is said the water use value in Pakistan was ‘zero’ – meaning very poor in efficiency. It noted that this value should improve from zero to 40 as soon as possible. “Increasing the domestic per capita consumption IDWA use component value could be achieved through increasing the number of people connected to piped networks, but this raises the question of water availability and system capacity”.The report said that in Karachi and several other major cities, water demand already exceeded production capacity by a considerable margin.
The ADB advised Pakistan to increase its water sector spending to a minimum of one per cent of GDP from the current 0.25 per cent. “In Pakistan, military spending is 47 times the expenditure in the water sector. It is a small price to pay for improved quality of life, millions of young lives saved, increased productivity and generating an economic return to boost prosperity.”
The bank said that lack of planning capacity and strong management, as well as frequent disagreements with provincial governments over water allocation have contributed to major water resource problems. “These issues are compounded by application of excessive irrigation water, causing increased salinity and water-logging.” As a result, 36 per cent of groundwater resources are now highly saline and untreated effluent discharges from municipalities and industrial areas make the quality of water resources increasingly critical.
“The number of tube-wells has increased significantly but despite the unsustainable mining of groundwater, additional wells continue to be installed to meet rural, urban and agricultural needs.”
The irrigation system urgently needs rehabilitation and stronger institutional arrangements, the groundwater resource depletion is unsustainable, the coverage, quality and reliability of urban water supply are grossly inadequate, especially in the light of the burgeoning urban population; and urban waste-water treatment is virtually non-existent (only one per cent) with the drainage network collecting agriculture waste along with mostly untreated municipal and industrial effluent and discharging it into the rivers. Salinity in rivers is an increasing problem.
The report said that water supply systems are characterised by limited hours of supply, low pressure, intermittent water supply, high levels of non-revenue -- for example 60 per cent in Islamabad. “In the first half of 2006, major outbreaks of waterborne disease epidemics swept Faisalabad, Karachi, Lahore and Peshawar as a result of sewage and industrial waste leaking into drinking water through damaged pipes, necessitating a major emergency public investment programme to finance more than 6,000 filtration plants.”
In Karachi and Lahore, 40 per cent of the water supply is unfiltered and 60 per cent of effluents are untreated. In Lahore, there is no sewage treatment and only three out of 100 industries chemically treat their waste-water. In Karachi, the sewerage system is in disrepair and there are no sewage treatment facilities, with even the two largest industrial estates in the country having no effluent treatment plants.
The report said some of Pakistan was heavily constrained by water availability with the situation deteriorating annually. The country needs to pursue conservation aggressively, particularly in the irrigation sector, which is characterised by low productivity relative to other countries. “Deteriorating water quality is a further major concern, necessitating the dramatic increase in the treatment of municipal and industrial waste-water as well as modifying agricultural practices.”
Very low tariffs, compounded by poor collection and billing practices, mean low cost recovery and the resulting bad state of repair of most water and sanitation systems. Tariff reform is vital not only to ensure sustainability but also to highlight the true value of water and service provision.
It said lack of inadequate and management coordination among water-user organisations, lack of consensus between provinces and high level of poverty were some of the causes of water-related problems in the country.
