WE are finally on the brink of a water security crisis, but we are still consuming, on average, 10 times more water per individual compared to the rest of the world.

The blessing of having the world’s biggest irrigation system has become a curse for us. To explain the issue in a nutshell, the problem with the irrigation system is that the available water is channelled too thinly in a wider network to reach everywhere. Along with the evaporation of water and inefficient management this has led to salinity and waterlogging. With this, we have invited an economic crisis into our country, and we have no one else to blame for it.

India is building dams like Kishanganga on the pretext that Pakistan has wasted water worth billions per year, and claiming it is fair on India’s part to build such dams to use that water for their needs.

We have some homework to do as well. The foremost requirement is to declare a national emergency.

Rehan Hamid Karimi
Peshawar

Published in Dawn, February 8th, 2019