ISLAMABAD: In March this year, Federal Minister for Water and Power Khawaja Asif warned in no unclear terms that Pakistan will face acute water shortages in the coming years.

Despite this awareness, the government has stopped funding to the research institute that can find solutions to this problem.

“No research funds were approved for the Pakistan Council for Research in Water Resources (PCRWR) last year, which is essentially a waste of research facilities that were built at a cost of Rs1 billion,” PCRWR Chairman Dr Mohammad Ashraf told Dawn.

The council received just enough money to pay employees’ salaries.

The PCRWR is just one among a dozen institutions that have been engaged in research in different fields, under the Ministry of Science and Technology.

Dr Ashraf told Dawn that highly educated staff members began leaving out of frustration and, in desperation, the ministry and the PCRWR pooled their unutilised monies to keep them working on a Rs1.4 billion project that aims to survey water resources for drinking and agriculture purposes and train some 12,000 people in how to manage water for efficient consumption.

l R&D has never been a priority area for govt funding l Essential projects in fields of energy, water and food security and electronics suffering because of lack of resources l Heads of research organisations pessimistic about availability of funds; allocations never fully disbursed l Most departments only receive enough money to pay salaries l Severe dearth of PhDs, qualified individuals leaving research organisations out of frustration

Under this project, called the Provision of Safe Drinking Water Project, some 200 technically-qualified staff studied more than 12,000 water sources across the country in one of the first and largest surveys in Asia to identify suitable sources of potable water. The survey also helped international NGOs such as the World Health Organisation and Unicef, among others, to assist the government to fight health problems such as water-borne diseases.

This project was initiated in 2007, but funds began to dry up by 2009. “By 2014, funding was cut so drastically that we could barely meet running expenses,” the PCRWR chairman said.

PCRWR is also losing the highly-qualified staff that mans its 24 laboratories.

A few weeks ago, the National Assembly Standing Committee on Science and Technology discussed the issue and asked Dr Ashraf to save the project.

“We are trying, but I can’t do much with a budget of Rs2 million per year; it barely meets the running expenses, let alone paying the kind of salaries we need to attract the best people,” he said.

“For seven months of the current financial year, the staff at the PCRWR went without pay and were only compensated when Rs70 million, which was held in reserve by the PCRWR and the Ministry of Science and Techonology, was used to pay the salaries,” he said.

But research work has stopped with no hope of resumption as the request for funds for the water development project for 2015-16 has still not been approved.

Systemic problem

This is not an isolated issue. Indeed, the heads of all 14 research and development organisations working under the Ministry of Science and Techonology are short of funds.

“We are given Rs500,000 for research in a year,” acting chairman of the Pakistan Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (PCSIR) Mohammad Ijaz Mian told Dawn.

According to another senior official in the PCSIR, no major breakthroughs have been made in over 70 projects due to a shortage of funds.

“Most projects were planned for one year, but have been dragging on for six to seven years, or longer in some cases,” the official said, adding that “the last time sufficient research funds were released was in 2007”.

Saying that investing in research was a ‘win-win’, Pakistan Council of Renewable Energy Technologies (PCRET) Director General Dr Suhail Zaki Farooqi said allocating appropriate funding to research on renewable energy sources could revolutionise Pakistan’s power consumption.

Even with the limited resources at their disposal, his office has developed solar-powered geysers, stoves, thermal water-purifiers, heaters and mobile phone chargers.

“We also electrified a CDA tubewell in Islamabad. The 35KW system pumps water from 270 feet underground, all under solar power. This is only a fraction of what alternate and renewable energy sources like solar, wind and bio-gas can offer,” Dr Farooqi said, adding that the department was now working on installing a 300MW wind-power station to generate electricity.

Dr Arshad S Malik, head of the Comsats Institute of Information Technology’s international centre, believes that no country can progress without research.

“Research is as important as universities, which train the future leaders of the country,” said Dr Arshad Malik, explaining how research created new frontiers of knowledge.

Nust Registrar Brig Saleem Daood echoed this view, and said that it was about time the government provided appropriate funding for research to create a knowledge-based society.

“All growth is backed by data and analysis generated from research, which is what helps make policies that can ensure progress of the country,” Brig Daood said.

According to officials in the Ministry of Science and Techonology, a considerable aid money flew into to the country under Gen Pervez Musharraf.

“Unfortunately, the heads of these research organisations were unable to utilize the funds effectively – money was spent constructing buildings, purchasing equipment, official vehicles, conferences and tours,” said one official, on the condition of anonymity.

However, others argue that politicians did not understand that research takes years to yield results.

Published in Dawn, May 4th, 2015

On a mobile phone? Get the Dawn Mobile App: Apple Store | Google Play