For an agrarian economy like Pakistan, a water crisis of the kind we are currently facing becomes an existential question. Let us examine the nature and extent of the crisis. Groundwater supplies are depleting at 16-55 centimetres (6-21 inches) a year, according to a study carried out by the International Water logging and Salinity Research Institute (IWASRI), a part of the Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA). The study says about 145 million acre feet of water flows through Pakistan each year, but the country’s existing storage capacity is only for 14 million acre feet. This means Pakistan can only store enough water to last 30 days. The international standard is 120 days. The water shortage is forcing many farmers in Punjab and some parts of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa to abandon cultivation due to the high fuel cost of watering their land by electric power. Consider the catastrophe we are setting ourselves up for — in a country where more than 50 percent of the population is food insecure. According to the 1960 Indus Water Treaty, signed under the auspices of the World Bank, the Ravi, Beas and Sutlej were allocated to India. Similarly, Pakistan was assigned first right to the western rivers — Jhelum, Chenab and Indus. Due to controversies over the building of the Kalabagh Dam on the River Indus the government has turned to the construction of the Diamer-Bhasha Dam. This project, too, is not entirely free of disputes between provinces upstream and further down the river. Securing global funding — in terms of foreign aid — to build such a vast project is not easy. It is made even harder by the well-known and much-publicised deleterious effects of such projects on the riverine environment. The looming water crisis is also impacted by the disastrous effects of climate change on the Himalayan glaciers — nature’s own fresh water storage system. Traditional irrigation methods used by our farmers add to water woes. Instead of using water according to the seasonal crop demand, farmers are in the habit of inundating fields — a most wasteful approach. This means our cultivators are urgently in need of awareness regarding water usage. The most effective and state-of-the-art drip sprinkler irrigation system is not common enough in Pakistan. The government needs to build small water storage structures to replenish groundwater levels, as well as to collect rainwater. Disaster might still possibly be averted. But that will not happen unless the government deals with our water crisis on an emergency basis. There can be no plan B if our agrarian economy is parched into collapse. *