The first recorded description of Punjab found in Rigveda, the first and foremost scripture of the subcontinent, is neither racial nor religious. It’s geographical; it calls the region a land of waters, Sapatasindua, the land of seven rivers, to be exact.

The rivers enumerated are Sindhu, Vitasta (Vehet/Jhelum), Chandrabhaga (Chenab), Iravati (Ravi), Vipash (Beas/Vias), Studri (Sutlej) and Saraswati/ Hakra. Sindh province is included in the description by implication where the rivers flow into before falling in the Arabian sea. Six rivers –seventh dried up long ago – must have formed a formidable body of water in ancient times when population was thin and nature was little affected by anthropocentric activity that invariably had a polluting touch. The scene from the present perspective looks incredible if not impossible. The entire region from Punjab to Sindh is in the grip of an acute water crisis that has serious economic and political implications. Political sable-rattling aside, the issue needs serious consideration as it is going to shape our future polity. Any serious analysis must point to the real causes of the crisis, make a prognosis and suggest measures which would mitigate the taut situation. In other words it must couple short-term measures with long-term ones in an effort to find a solution that is sustainable.

The first real cause of water shortage is the population explosion, literally an explosion. To illustrate it one needs to look at the country’s history. Erstwhile West Pakistan (present day Pakistan) had a population of around 58 million and East Pakistan had an estimated population of 70 million in 1971 before the latter separated and emerged as independent Bangladesh. Today the situation is quite the opposite; Pakistan has more than 250 million population while Bangladesh’s population is approximately 174 million. Bangladesh’s successful effort to have controlled population growth rate is one of the reasons why its social indicators are better than those of Pakistan. Some of the factors that contributed to this development are political consciousness, efficient resource management, bearable defence budget, reorientation of socio-cultural norms with the help of clergy and above all massive induction of women in the workforce. All such measures changed their national landscape.

Pakistan, on the other hand, abandoned even the modest initiative it had taken in the 1960s to control population.

The main reasons that stymied the half-hearted effort have been ideological and political. Pandering to the orthodox clergy and hard right, the state and the successive military and civilian regimes ceased to take exponential population growth as an issue. It rather started treating the idea of population control, of course wrongly, as something against the religious norms ignoring the fact that the more would be the messier. The state and institutions related to it would use the hordes as a political tool against political forces and activists who stood for democracy, human rights and civil liberties. Politicians wouldn’t dare oppose any such move for two obvious reasons; firstly, they couldn’t afford to invite the wrath of the establishment. Secondly, they have been careful not to alienate or offend large sections of the brainwashed populace who would be their electorate if and when elections were held. So it’s simple math; the bigger the population, the greater the water consumption. With increased population even if the water supply remains constant there would be shortage. The scene became somewhat similar as described by a poet; “The wind makes the cloud, that there may be rain on the ploughland, that bread may come / Let us now make children out of our lusts, for the bread, that it may be devoured.”

The crisis triggered by water shortage is exacerbated by several other factors. Extremely injudicious use of available water supply is the norm. A lot of lower and middle class homes are washed daily with clean drinkable water. Lady of the house or maid generously wastes water. She hardly cares to turn off the faucet while scrubbing the floor. Our traditional washing also wastes water. Car showrooms get their old auto vehicles washed daily, wasting hundreds of tonnes of clean water. All such unrestrained activities have greatly depleted the underground freshwater aquifiers. In the agricultural sector the situation is dismal. We have traditional canals which lose a sizable amount of water by evaporation in our hot weather. Our peasants and growers use traditional methods of irrigation; they flood their fields that results in a loss of water that is avoidable if new techniques are employed. Drip irrigation system, for example, is one of them. But the state and managers of the economy haven’t made any effort to enable the growers to use modern technology. Another thing that has been direly ignored is lack of encouragement for the water efficient and drought tolerant crops.

On the contrary, water guzzlers such as sugar-cane crops have become a priority to the benefit of the powerful vested interests known as the sugar mafia. Imported sugar may be cheaper but who cares.

Sadly, over the issue of water distribution among the provinces and new agricultural plans political dust has been raised by all the concerned and the non-concerned conveniently ignoring the overall view of the issue. Political slogan mongering is what gets one noticed. An added factor has been a process of climate change. Our rivers are dependent on glacial waters and glaciers are melting fast in our anthropocentric age. At the same time the traditional pattern of rains has become erratic due to the greenhouse gas emissions. A sane suggestion would be that all future projects that require a large supply of water should be withheld. The first priority must be to evolve an efficient strategy in consultation with all the stake-holders that takes into consideration the holistic picture and comes up with short- and long-term measures. The people too have to be taken on board encouraging them to shed their wasteful habits regarding the use of water. The action has to be taken fast in all seriousness. Indifference or procrastination will exact a terrible price; we would be left stranded in the sands of our riverbeds like a fish out of water. — soofi01@hotmail.com

Published in Dawn, April 21st, 2025