LAHORE, March 31: Wapda chairman Tariq Hamid has said unavailability of water resources is fast leading the country to a crisis and the issue needed to be addressed immediately.

Speaking at a World Water Day meeting organised by the Pakistan Engineering Congress at the Wapda House here on Saturday, he stressed that there was an increasing competition among domestic, industrial and farm users in Pakistan.

Population growth, rapid urbanisation and industrialisation were imposing growing demands and pressures on water. The rising imbalance between supply and demand had led to shortages and unhealthy competition leading to inter-provincial tension, he said, adding that the real challenge lay in raising the political will to implement the water-related commitments.

He said irrigated agriculture was the largest user of water. Pakistan was facing water shortages that affected irrigation despite having rivers. Water shortages were going to get worse with every passing year not only for urban centres, but more so for irrigation that would aggravate food deficit, he feared.

Keeping in view the ground realities, he said, it was imperative that water must be conserved to the maximum and the only solution was construction of reservoirs wherever feasible and their optimum utilisation. Hydropower was the cheapest and environmentally the cleanest way of generating electricity. Its abundant potential in Pakistan had to be developed on a priority basis if the current trend of rising power tariff was to be reversed, he proposed.

The Wapda chief said Pakistan needed to work urgently to better utilise its water resources by building dams. So far 81 large, medium and small dams had had been built across the country since 1947. Construction of mega water projects, including Diamir-Bhasha dam, Kalabagh dam, Akhori dam and Kurram Tangi dam, as announced by President Gen Pervez Musharraf would be completed by 2016. A small Sabakzai dam would be completed in Balochistan within this year, he said.

He said public support and participation was also required for meeting challenges in the water sector.

According to him, the water professionals needed a better understanding of the broader social, economic and political context, while political leaders must be better informed about water resource issues. The growing shortage of water, which reached alarming proportions during the drought years, required concerted effort to conserve water, develop available resources and adopt modern technologies for more efficient irrigation techniques.

Unless this was done, he said, self-sufficiency in food, socio-economic amelioration, poverty alleviation and conservation of environment would remain a dream. This might lead to food shortages and famine-like conditions, he warned.

Engineer Chaudhry Ghulam Husain said in his keynote address improving access of the poor to water was becoming a serious problem. Irrigated agriculture provided 90 per cent food to the population. He said freshwater distribution was not equitable due to unhealthy competition among the end users. Besides, water resources were being polluted owing to disposal of industrial effluents without proper treatment.

Pakistan Engineering Congress President (Engineer) Hasnain Ahmad said despite scant average annual rainfall of barely 250mm, the country boasted of the largest network of irrigation canals in the world. The agriculture sector sustained by canal water contributed 28 per cent of GDP and, above all, approximately 80 percent of exports.

The average available river water was 143 million acre feet and average utilisation only 103 MAF. Resultantly, 40 MAF water flowed into the sea untapped. The country, he said, experienced 30 to 50 per cent irrigation water shortages during October-March period and sowing of Kharif crop in April and May due to variation in seasonal flow of river water.

The Water Apportionment Accord, signed by the chief ministers of all four provinces in 1991, required to be implemented for resolving inter-provincial disputes over river water sharing, he emphasised.

He said the per-capita water availability for human consumption had shrunk from 5,651 cubic metres in 1961 to 1,200 cubic metres by the end of 2006. Studies showed that Pakistan would face additional water shortages of 15 to 20 MAF by 2020.

Although water was the cheapest source for power generation, the country had utilised only 10 per cent of its 40,000 megawatt potential so far due to gross indifference towards its conservation during the past three decades whereas China and India had attained the 30 per cent target.

The official said four million acres would have been brought under cultivation with annual benefits of Rs25 billion in case a big dam had been built.

Speaking on the Indus Water Treaty, Engineer Usman Ghani said India and Pakistan were reluctant to give control of rivers to each other. India claimed greater right on the use of water of Chenab and Jhelum as upper riparian and had been involved in dispute with Pakistan on Kishan Ganga and other projects.