An average Pakistani wastes about 40 gallons of water when washing a single car and a gallon of water every time he brushes his teeth. The general public needs to be aware of the consequences of wasting water
Did it actually reach the needy or did it stay in the hands of our leaders? There is no accountability for that. Another time the PML-N government initiated a ‘qarz utaro, mulk sunwaro’ scheme late in the 1990s. People contributed again but no one knows where the money went. It was never spent on its actual purpose. What is different this time then; people may ask? Well for once, Imran Khan has himself vowed to take care of this money and personally make sure that the money reaches its desired destination. He has given his personal examples of Namal University and Shukat Khanam where people did not only contribute; they could also see the results of their contributions. The previous governments have had a history of alleged corruption and mismanagement. Imran Khan has vowed that his government will prove itself to be otherwise. He has no history of corruption and has always claimed that he will always be available for accountability. This is something that no leader has done before. None of our previous political leaders had presented themselves for accountability and Imran Khan has been proven by the Supreme Court of Pakistan that there are no corruption charges against him. Another noteworthy point is that the Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Saqib Nisar has taken the matter in his own hands as well. He will oversee the project himself and will personally make sure that the funds are allocated properly. This is an additional check which will make sure that the funds are managed properly and honestly. Now, apart from contributing generously to the dam fund as Imran Khan has proposed, we should also analyse our actions at the grass root level. The masses need to be educated about water conservation. There is no water management policy and no proper arrangement of water storage in the country. An average Pakistani wastes about 40 gallons of water when washing a single car and a gallon of water every time he brushes his teeth. The general public needs to be aware of the consequences of wasting water. Pakistan is an agricultural country and has the 4th highest rate of water use in the world. We are a water intensive country where a huge chunk of our water is used in irrigation. But because there is no water saving mechanisms in the country, 60% of this water is wasted before it actually reaches the fields. We can apply many measures in our daily lives to save water. Many of them are quite basic, but like tiny droplets make an ocean, every little step that we take towards water conservation counts. We need to turn off the faucet when brushing our teeth. This seems like a trivial task but by doing this we can save up to 6 litres of water every time. We need to diversify our water resources. And one way we can do that is by installing rain barrels in our homes to collect rain water. This water can easily be used to water plants and clean outdoors. Many countries like Australia have fixed rain barrels in their homes and it is highly recommended to water plants with that water. Moreover, we can also cut water use by 33 percent if water plants manually instead of using automatic sprinklers. We need to stop wasting our food. Apart from the fact that we need to realise that more than half of our country can not afford a basic meal, a lot of water is used in the irrigation. Wasting less food can be able to preserve water in the long run. Water Recycling Plants need to be constructed so that they can conserve and use recycled water in irrigation. One reason there is a lot of water wastage in the country is because the water price is not fixed. Everywhere in the world, water is being sold on water meter readings. Price should also be charged as per the metre readings in our country as it will make people realise the value of water. Some of these steps may seem trivial and some may seem controversial, but the fact of the matter is that we need to solve our water problem immediately. We are already 20 years late in resolving this issue. Hence, we need to get past the blame game and move forward otherwise Pakistan will have no water in just 7 years.
The writer is a graduate of Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) and is based in Sydney, Australia
Published in Daily Times, September 26th 2018.
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