ISLAMABAD: With Pakistan at the brink of being declared ‘water scarce’, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is expected to launch a major initiative in about a month to address increasing number of economic and social challenges arising out of water scarcity.

“Prime Minister’s Initiative on Water Security” is currently being firmed up by various stakeholders, led by Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda), through a series of consultative sessions. Three key sessions are planned over the next 10 days for Lahore, Islamabad and Hyderabad to “take a holistic view of the situation and develop an integrated strategy at the national level to ensure water security for sustained development” of the economy.

Talking to Dawn, a senior government official claimed that it would be biggest water sector initiative in the country’s history that would cover all gambits including demand side, supply side and water management. On the demand side management, the official said, the steps would be planned towards population control, pricing of water usage, efficient water use in agriculture, changing cropping patterns and policy measures towards industrial, domestic and commercial water uses.

On the supply side management, steps would be taken for building water storages, efforts for resolving trans-boundary water issues, groundwater sustainability. On the water management side, steps would be taken to address issues of water conservation, lining of canals, recycling and re-use of saline effluent, wastages like seepages in saline areas, measures for sustainability of water resources, public awareness and drainage or treatment of surface and ground water.

This comes following a report of the US Institute of Peace (USIP) which said Pakistan was headed towards a serious water crisis because of overuse and misuse. It said the United Nations was expected to downgrade Pakistan from ‘water stressed’ to ‘water scarce’ by 2030.

In overall terms, the country’s total water storage capacity is less than 30 days of minimum requirements, which is considered too low and close to water scarcity against global standards of 120 days of coverage. This contributes to lower gross domestic product. The country could not achieve its GDP growth rate during recent years mainly because of poor performance by the agriculture sector.

In comparison, India can have storage for up to 220 days, Egypt 1,000 days, Australia 600 days and the US for about 900 days. Pakistan’s per capita water availability has dropped from over 5,300 cubic metres in the 1950’s to about 1,000 cubic metres now which is the scarcity benchmark. The USIP said that while issues between India and Pakistan often garner the most attention, water conflicts within Pakistan’s borders have the explosive potential to poison inter-ethnic and inter-provincial relations and turn simmering tension into violence.

In April this year Indus River System Authority (Irsa), the country’s water regulator, anticipated a water crisis in the wake of extreme weather conditions and advised the government to freeze entire development programme for five years and divert funds for construction of major water reservoirs on a war footing as a national priority.

The new initiative, also benefiting from the national water policy measures proposed by international experts under the aegis of the defunct Friends of Democratic Pakistan (FODP), also seeks to have joint watershed management with India, China and Afghanistan to address emerging issues of shortage, glacier melt and global warming for long-term economic sustainability.

Previous efforts towards evolving consensus on major issues, including increasing shortages, low storage capacity, productivity and costing, higher recovery of water rates (abiana) for investments in operations and maintenance and reservoir sedimentation could not materialise due to lack of push by the Ministry of Water And Power.

The water sector taskforce of the FODP formulated plans for regulation of groundwater use, un-captured downstream flows, overuse of water by industrial and municipal services, paucity of drinking water and saline water treatment besides the impact of global warming.

Pakistan has to be proactive in resolving water issues with neighbouring countries as water has become scarce and the country will face a severe shortage by 2020, according to government officials. The initiative is expected to trigger international interest towards ‘mega signature projects’ like $14 billion Diamer-Bhasha dam, Bunji, Dasu dams and other water sector projects to address issues in water scarcity, flood mitigation and power generation.

The US government has advised Islamabad that Pakistan needed population control and water security for its own stability and hence it should work on economics of water costing which make the irrigation sector sustainable.

Indus River System Authority believed that at the very minimum, 22 million acre feet storage capacity should be developed at the earliest. “To put an end to the misery faced by the country, the PSDP for all sectors be frozen for at least five years and funds may be diverted for the construction of mega storages on a priority basis in the best interest of public,” Irsa asked the federal government.

Published in Dawn, October 6th , 2015

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