Daily Times

In an insightful talk titled What is the Water Crisis? that was held on Wednesday at The Last Word, lawyer Ahmad Rafay Alam explained the nature of the major water crisis that persists in most areas of Pakistan and how it has taken shape over the years from the time of the Sindh-Punjab Water Accord in 1945.

Ahmad Rafay Alam himself is an environmental lawyer with a background in water laws and in his talk, he highlighted the development and security of the economy in relation to water disputes that have characterised Indo-Pak society since the past century.

Alam maintained that the increase in the population of Pakistan since 1947 is directly related to a rise in water scarcity. In what he termed as “the hydrological hegemony of scale”, Alam described that the fragmented nature of water channels, rivers and canals released by the Indus River has caused different entities to claim ownership of water resources in Pakistan. This precedent of hegemony, he said, had been set by the colonial powers from the time of partition in Indo-Pak history. However, Alam distinguished between water flows underground and the “Third Core” water resources such as glaciers in the northern areas of Pakistan; water disposed from these areas is not owned by any private entity. Alam gave an analogy comparing water to property, where water flowing under lands owned by rich individuals was naturally claimed by them. This took the talk in the direction of who the stakeholders are for the issue of water scarcity and impurity. Alam clarified that no single entity governs all of the water supply at the federal level, the Council of Common Interests deals with disputes between provinces over water- such as the recent dispute between Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. On a provincial level, the Housing Urban Development and Public Health Engineering Department is responsible for the Water & Sanitation Agency (WASA) in Lahore. Their job is to ensure that all areas in Lahore are provided with clean drinking water. However, Alam questioned the efficacy of the workings of WASA because he recognised that not all areas of Lahore receive access to clean drinking water, especially the rural suburbs.

The second segment of Alam’s talk revolved around man-made water supply in Pakistan such as dams and barrages. The largest of these is the Tarbela Dam, which unlike the Guddu Barrage, also generates electricity instead of solely storing water. He discussed the vast topic of the maintenance of the Tarbela Dam. He pointed out that rain and ground water are major natural suppliers of water in Pakistan and that more barrages will have to be built in order to control the issue of water scarcity. In addressing groundwater, Alam maintained that rises in levels have increased the number of tube wells being used as the main irrigation system all around Pakistan. Tube wells significantly contribute to the economy through heavily facilitating the growth of cash crops grown around Punjab. Alam added that farmers are subsidised by the government in order to increase the number of tube wells around the nation.

The last and most interesting section of Alam’s talk surrounded how the production of certain common goods can lead to the using up of large amounts of water. These include, but aren’t limited to cotton and even chocolate. Additionally, Alam claimed that bottled water isn’t as safe as we trust it to be. He pointed out that big companies of mineral water don’t buy the water they sell; they merely package groundwater in bottles. The humorous element to this talk was added when he pointed out that we fear privatisation of water, yet we already pay money to acquire bottled waters for our daily use. Alam concluded the talk by offering tips to change poor water quality as well as for the conservation of water.

Published in Daily Times, June 29^th 2018.