Daily Times

This year, Pakistan grows 71 years old. Since 1947,its population has swelled to more than 200 million people. A majority of Pakistanis live in rural areas; most in extreme poverty, with little or no access to basic shelter, electricity, food and water. With this ever-increasing population, it is hard to imagine how depleted resources such as food and water will be managed, if at all, in the future.

Once the owner of the world’s largest contiguous water irrigation system, Pakistan has sadly shifted from a water-abundant country to a water-scarce one, due to poor policies and lack of collaboration and political priority. Being an agrarian country, this should cause an uproar in the Parliament, national and provincial assemblies, as well as the courts.

Institutionally, the future looks very dim from here on when it comes to water. Our National Water Policy is still in its draft form. The Ministry of Climate Change is also focusing on efforts localised to specific regions, instead of dealing with the problem as a national issue. Municipalities are working in silos with no collaboration with neighbouring cities or villages.

To compound problems, agriculture taxes on water are usually exempted at farms. Little or no water metering occurs in agricultural areas, leading to misuse and corruption. 90 percent of Pakistan’s water is consumed by agriculture, with more than half of it being wasted due to poor irrigation systems. Pakistan continues to operate as a water abundant country despite the water stress communities and businesses have started to face.

90 percent of the country’s water resources are consumed by the agriculture industry. Pakistan continues to operate as a water abundant country despite the water stress communities and businesses have started to face

While a lot of water is routed to our farms, very little actually reaches farmers. The health and sanitary problems they face as a consequence, forces them to move to cities and live in slums which are often in worse condition than what they left behind. This increase in rural to urban migration depletes our cities’ water tables even further.

Big businesses and industries, on the other hand, have shifted their priority to conserve water, despite consuming less than 3 percent of the country’s water. Competitive local textile companies like Artistic Milliners, Soorty Enterprises, Indus Dyeing and many more are focusing on water conservation efforts to not only reduce water consumption, but make a bigger business case for their buyers abroad that believe in environmental stewardship and products made with as little water as possible. Nestle Pakistan has also setup a water neutral plant in Sheikhupura and aims to put the same amount of water they extract from the ground back in.

Hence, it is important to recognize that water links the individual, the community and the businesses more than any other environmental resource. Despite this, the common Pakistani, cares very little about it. In order to bring water on the agenda for our next election, Pakistanis need to change the way they think about water and how they use it. Karachi’s elite areas such as DHA and Clifton already face the brunt of the crisis every summer, when their Cantonment boards run out of water, and become dependent on water tankers coupled with inflated water prices. A discourse must be initiated about ourselves as responsible consumers of water resources. World Water Day – which presented an opportunity to do just this – passed by on March 22, and received little if any attention in the media.

Pakistanis need to adopt lifestyle changes every day to shift our focus from blaming the government and local municipalities to being change-makers ourselves. Simple habits like turning off the tap while brushing your teeth and utilizing AC water throughout the summer to water plants and gardens can make a sizeable difference. People need to realise that no amount of money can ever solve the water crisis once it’s too late. Water needs to be an important issue within every neighbourhood, city and province. It will have to start from the individual level and then move upwards to greater management and policy-making and implementation.

Cities like Cape Town are examples of this and no matter how rich or poor, the problem will remain the same for all Cape Town residents – who can no longer depend on their taps to deliver clean water. That is a scenario Pakistani citizens may become all too familiar with in the near future.

The writer is an environmentalist and a Program Manager at Centre of Excellence in Responsible Business. She Tweets at @sustainistani

Published in Daily Times, April 7^th 2018.