WHEN the 1,000 to 1,500 protesters from Kharo Chan completed their ‘long march’ to Thatta in July, cries of “Karbala, Karbala” could be heard from amongst them. This was reportedly the third march of its kind since January — all part of an attempt to draw the government’s attention to the acute water crisis that is being faced by the coastal communities of Sindh. Marchers complained about the difficulty they had in simply accessing clean drinking water for themselves. For years, the Indus delta region has suffered from freshwater shortages and loss of land due to soil erosion. With a rising population, unequal distribution of resources and the pain of climate change being felt throughout the land, their cries turned louder. Sadly, they continue to fall on deaf ears. However, it seems that this predicament is not unique to them, but part of a worrying global trend. According to new data released by the World Resources Institute, 17 countries around the world have to contend with “extremely high” water stress — in other words, a quarter of the world’s population is at risk of running out of water. Besides Pakistan, the list includes Qatar, Israel, Lebanon, Iran, Jordan, Libya, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Eritrea, the UAE, San Marino, Bahrain, India, Turkmenistan, Oman, and Botswana. Several of the countries that are identified as ‘water-stressed’ face the dangers posed by two extremes of nature: floods on the one hand; and droughts on the other. For agriculture-dependent economies such as Pakistan, such erratic weather and rising temperatures spell disaster.

In the past decade or so, we have witnessed both natural calamities. Together, they have created scores of climate change refugees in their wake and destroyed lives and property. But the reality of these extremes only further highlights the fact that the current water shortages are very much an issue of mismanagement of resources and the unnecessary wastage of water caused by shortsighted planning that does not take worst-case scenarios into account — until it is too late. For instance, groundwater is depleting at an alarming rate as it is not stored sensibly to see through difficult times. In a recent, rare appearance in parliament, the prime minister advised that we should “hope for the best, prepare for the worst” in the context of the increasingly hostile relations with India. One hopes that our policymakers extend this philosophy to the country’s water crisis as well.

Published in Dawn, August 9th, 2019