ISLAMABAD: Groundwater is depleting and becoming contaminated throughout the country faster than ever, the National Assembly Standing Committee on Climate Change was informed on Tuesday.

“It is a crisis because uncertain rain patterns are not recharging the aquifer, a consequence of climate change,” Ali Tauqeer from LEAD, a local NGO, told the committee. The members met for a briefing on impacts of climate change on water security.

From reviewing the five-year-old Climate Change Policy 2012 to shortage of storage facilities to mismanagement of water and its wastage and the need for more reservoirs and lack of sufficient funding were some of the issues brought to the attention of the committee.

Use of technology-based methods should be promoted in agriculture sector to avoid wastage of water, says expert

Mr Tauqeer said groundwater in every city was falling by one metre every year. “It will be wise to charge citizens for pumping water from the aquifer to make them realise that it is the most precious commodity and should not be wasted,” he said.

He dispelled the myth that water was scarce in Pakistan. “It is being managed in a manner where there is more wastage. There needs to be fairness in the distribution of water,” he said.

There is also the urgent need to revisit the Climate Change Policy and examine its implementation status in the light of the new data, research and global practices. He stressed the need for promoting the use of technology-based methods to avoid wasting water in the agriculture sector.

The meeting was informed that at present the agriculture sector consumed 93pc, domestic sector five and the industry two per cent of water resources. Both domestic and industrial sectors’ use is projected to increase to 15pc by 2025.

Chief Engineer Ministry of Water Resources Alamgir Khan told the meeting that Pakistan had moved from a water affluent to water stressed country. In 1947, per capita water availability was 5,000 cubic metres which has decreased to around 1,000 cubic metres and is projected to decrease to 800 cubic metres by 2025.

As a consequence of climate change, frequent and intense floods will increase costs of investment in flood protection works as well as leaving less land available for settlement.

The rising sea level will infiltrate unusable saline water into coastal aquifers reducing water, abrupt rains and droughts would be frequent events and agriculture would be affected resulting in low productivity.

Elaborating the recent trends of climate change, the official said solar radiation intensity had increased by 0.5 to 0.7pc over the southern half of the country.

Central and southern Punjab are already experiencing three to five per cent less cloud cover, he said.

“There is a 10 to 15pc decrease in both winter and summer rains in coastal and arid plains and temperature has increased nearly one degree centigrade throughout the country. All of this happened from 1940 to 2015.”

Responding to questions on measures taken to counter the effects of climate change, Mr Khan urged the members to ask the government to release more funds to undertake mitigation efforts.

Published in Dawn, March 28th, 2018