ISLAMABAD, Sept 18: UN agencies in Pakistan have expressed serious concern over the over-exploitation of groundwater resources, particularly by big landlords who use it not only on their lands but also sell it as a commercial commodity.

The concern arises from the fact that even as admitted in official documents there are an estimated 500,000 tubewells in Pakistan. These are expected to mushroom to 680,000 by 2010, given the speed at which big landlords are installing them after having obtained subsidy on electricity.

What is more, big landlords are installing tubewells to sell water and mint money. The indiscriminate suction of water has emptied the aquifers of sweet water in many areas of Punjab, Sindh and Balochistan.

“One of the worrying aspects is that not only over- exploitation but a great deal of underground water resources is being wasted,” said a UNDP recent report.

Agriculture, which uses almost 93-95 per cent of water, loses about half of this amount before it reaches the farmgate. The industry uses about 3 per cent and there too is a great wastage. Besides, the industry releases effluents which in turn reduces fresh water quantities.

Another UN agency, the World Food Programme, has urged the urgency of media campaigns to highlight the importance of water conservation. In many parts of the country, it said, “water resources are still not managed efficiently and the waste lies in stark contrast to the hugely pressing needs of the poor in other places who have to walk for miles to fetch every day.”

In its report, Unesco has stressed as “crucial” the need for a firm commitment by the government about the possibility of formulating rules to support the institutional framework for an adequate and sustainable groundwater management.

Such political commitment, it added, would facilitate the identification of external funding source.

The report has particularly drawn attention to Balochistan where exploitation and urban water supply have increased tremendously in the past decade.

Intensive groundwater extraction, particularly for irrigation of orchards as well as the provision of domestic supply for Quetta city, has caused a continuous decline in water levels in order of two to four metres per year in the main extraction areas.

Consequently, traditional water extraction schemes, like karezes and dug wells, have dried up and tubewells have to be deepened to secure adequate yield for irrigation purposes.

The adverse effects of over-exploitation of groundwater resources are particularly severe during periods of low rainfall. In addition to critical shortages of water for domestic supply, insufficient availability of irrigation has damaged perennial plantations such as orchards and to substantial economic losses.

Groundwater extraction at the present rate obviously exceeds the renewable volume of groundwater, with there being no effort to curb the installation of new tubewells. What is more, this is encouraged as the governments bows to the interests of the big landlords in granting indefinite subsidy on power supply.

In response to a request from the government, the Director- General of Unesco approved special funds for fielding a technical mission to investigate the causes of drought in Balochistan and recommend strategies to overcome the problem.

Unesco Division of Water Sciences, in consultation with the UNDP, Islamabad, and experts of FAO and WFP, fielded the two- member mission to Pakistan in September 2000, which held a series of consultative meetings with officials of the federal and provincial governments.

The mission proposed a five-year pilot and demonstration project which envisaged undertaking in depth field investigations, evolving and installing institutional and technical setups for sustainable water management in Balochistan.

In the light of these investigations, a number of measures were recommended to the government.

Meanwhile, UNESCO has been in touch with specialists involved in the strategy of communication with agriculturists and received suggestions for the implementation of the project.

Unesco, while calling for a political commitment for sustainable groundwater management, particularly in Balochistan, has suggested that Pakistan strengthen the national committees of the two Unesco-based relevant intergovernmental programmes: the International Hydrological Programme and Man and the Biosphere.