Though the World Water Day is being observed across the globe today, yet water shortage is likely to hit the Pakistan-posing threat to national economy, ecosystem and food security.
The country once remained a favorable due to its geographic conditions where glaciers and connected rivers had been considered enough for its water requirements but the present situation cleared a crisis in looming. The situation has become as worst as World Economic Forum’s survey report stated that the water crisis would be the biggest threat to country in near future.
Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resources (PCRWR) in its report depicted this situation more vulnerable, which stated that country may run dry by 2025 owing to lack of proper policy and mismanagement toward water.
This has been observed that country is not just running out of its freshwater resources but also facing numerous water related issues. This has been reported time and again that water quality in many of parts of country was unsatisfactory. Besides, other environmental challenges, the water pollution also remained in limelight due to negligence of authorities concerned. These untreated effluents are among the causes of airborne diseases. According to UNDP, “The repercussions of unhealthy water on health are severe: an approximate 39,000 children under five die every year from diarrhea caused by unsafe water and poor sanitation.”
Despite presence of the environmental law, most of the industrial units in country remained busy in disposing their untreated water into waterbodies. However, some reputed industrial groups have started treating their wastewater.
“Water associated problems are amongst the key challenges faced by Pakistan,” stated in a United Nation Development Project’s recent report, which further reads that Pakistan’s water profile has changed drastically from being a water abundant country, to one experiencing water stress.
From 1990 to 2015, per capita water availability of Pakistan has been declined from 2,172 cubic metres per inhabitant, to 1,306 cubic metres per inhabitant. According to UNDP report “Pakistan extracts 74.3 percent of its freshwater annually, thereby exerting tremendous pressure on renewable water resources. Despite remarkable improvements in the proportion of the population using improved water sources and improved sanitation facilities, 27.2 million Pakistanis do not have access to safe water and 52.7 million do not have access to adequate sanitation facilities,” the report reads.
Published in Daily Times, March 22nd 2019.