Daily Times

Globally, climate change and urbanization are increasing water scarcity and water disparities respectively. Yet, humans are using six times more water as they did 100 years ago. The pressure on water resources is expected to increase with the population growth and flourishing middle class by 60% by 2025.

In Pakistan, life for 120 million people is going to be harder in future who currently have limited access to water. According to Water Resources Institute, the country is already categorized as “extremely highly-water-stressed country” as it draws nearly 80% of available water supply every year. The coming decades will unleash further hardships as the climate models predict an overall flow reduction of 20% in the Indus river system by 2100.

Pakistan’s national water footprint currently stands at 3,600 litres per person per day, 84% of which is covered through domestic resources. Due to economic and demographic pressures, the demand for ground and surface waters will continue to grow in the years to come. With limited supplies of water and finances, the water managers and policymakers have limited choices and time to avoid a catastrophic future.

Pakistanis still love to be called an agrarian society. Although the share of agriculture to national GDP has now been reduced to around 20%, the use of water in the sector remains at 90% of the available water. The three main crops of wheat, rice and cotton are among the top five water-intensive crops.

There is a need to separate right to groundwater from land ownership rights

The State of the World’s Water 2019 report informs that wheat is responsible for 22% of groundwater depletion with an average water footprint of 1,800 litres per kilogram.

Rice is a major culprit which uses 40% of all global irrigation, and 17% of groundwater and has an average water footprint of 2,500 litres per kilogram.

Cotton has a heavy use of irrigated water, which can turn arid environments like Southern Punjab and Northern Sindh into deserts. In Pakistan, the cotton crop uses an average of 9,800 litres per kilogram, which is much higher than that of other cotton producing countries like USA. The production of cloth from cotton crop is also highly water intensive. A cotton shirt takes 2700 litres and a pair of jeans pants take 10,000 liters of water during manufacturing, which is sufficient to meet the drinking requirements of a normal human being for 2.5 years.

A 2017 research published in scientific journal “Nature” claimed that Pakistan was the largest groundwater exporter with 7.3 billion cubic meters back in 2010. Nearly 10% of the UK’s virtual water imports come from Pakistan with negative implications for the later. Most of these imports are based on crops grown in lower Indus aquifer where the amount of abstracted groundwater is more than 18 times the amount of natural water recharge through rainfall and glacial melting. On the other hand, UK meets about one-third of its water demand in agriculture and industry through imports i.e. 53 billion cubic meters per year.

Pakistan needs out-of-the-box solutions to manage its water resources and ensure the supply of clean water as a basic human right to the impoverished people living both in big cities or far off villages. In the long run, the country has to shift its focus from water-intensive crops and manufacturing to stop the export of virtual water.

Many hydrologists and water experts believe that virtual water trade can be used as an important adaptation measure for climate change. Ali Tauqeer Sheikh, the CEO of LEAD Pakistan is of the view that the substitution of water-intensive crops and products’ with other water-efficient exports is an innovative way of adapting to climate change. However, this is possible only when our economy is data-driven and our society is environment sensitive.

In the medium run, the government needs to work with local and foreign manufacturers and farmers to promote water smart technologies in industry and agriculture. Some international buyers are already working on their own with local producers and farmers and producing excellent results.

The State of the World’s Water 2019 report further informs that Mars and H&M are working with local farmers and industries in Pakistan to reduce their water footprint and increase their incomes at the same time. Under the Better Cotton Initiative, Pakistani rice farmers have reported an increase in their income by 32% and yields by 17%. Meanwhile, they have decreased their water usage by 30%.

In the short run, the country needs development and implementation of laws on groundwater abstraction. Punjab lawmakers are brooding over such a law for long but God knows how many more years it will take to finally hatch.

“There is a need to separate right to groundwater from land ownership rights. The state must determine institutional responsibility and control over groundwater resources. The existing legal framework has a colonial legacy which allows unlimited private use. More recently, we have seen a number of versions of the said law in Punjab drafted by the previous and incumbent governments in Punjab and hope to see a comprehensive law as soon as possible”, says Nadeem Ahmad of WaterAid Pakistan.

The writer is a freelancer