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| Drought left many villages in GB deserted | | ‘Ignorance of natural pushing Pakistan towards severe water crisis’ | | Ankush Verma
In Loralai city of Balochistan province of Pakistan, Abdhul Hakim feeds himself and his family by hard labour, but his main occupation actually is agriculture and farming. When in his own area of Kilipunga, he didn’t get any work, he has to migrate to Loralai.
“In Loralai, I sometimes have to work in the fields of onions, sometimes I work at construction sites and sometimes I work as watchman”, said Abdhul Hakim. He lives in a rented house, but he says that if there was any choice in Kilipunga, he would have never migrated to the city.
“When I was young, we didn’t have any time to come to the city, I used to crave to visit the city. But now when I have migrated here, I don’t like the city life at all. Life in the city is very difficult whereas it is easy to live in village”. In Loralai, half of the people have migrated from the nearby places and settled there. In Kilipunga, there were 35 families around 20 years ago but today only five families are left there. Rest of the 30 families have migrated to the nearby city. Droughts and acute shortage of water has forced Abdul Hakim and 29 other families to migrate to the city to earn bread and butter for their families. Due to the climate change, the pattern of rain has changed in this area along with the poor water management by the Pakistani authorities have left people to suffer lengthy dry spells. The water level in this area has dropped from 20-25 feet to 500-1000 feet.
The province of Gilgit Baltistan and Balochistan has around 7000 glaciers, as the three highest mountain ranges on earth meet in this area of northern Pakistan. These “water towers” act as the ice stores for many rivers, such as the Indus which is more than 1,800 miles long (over 3,000 kilometres). It crosses the whole country on its course from the mountains in the north down to its mouth at the Arabian Sea. 70% of its water comes from Himalayan glaciers. But poor management of water has made Pakistan a water scarce country. Poor water management in Pakistan is causing high water waste within the agriculture sector.
While Pakistan’s irrigation system is vast, it is outdated and poorly maintained. In particular, much of Pakistan’s agriculture is dependent on flood irrigation methods, which involves flooding fields using canals or tube wells. Many of the waterways that carry water from rivers for this method of irrigation are not appropriately lined, leading to further seepages of up to 40 percent. The problem is made worse by poor governance and management in the water sector. While there are laws governing water, they are often archaic, dating back to the colonial era. Other attempts to reform water management have simply added new bureaucracy on top of the existing framework, creating agencies with overlapping duties.
The water crisis is not limited to the region of Balochistan. But it has spread all over Pakistan. Currently, Pakistan is categorized as a water-scarce country because the yearly water availability is less than 1,000 cubic meters per person. The country crossed this level in 2005. If it reaches 500 cubic meters, it will become a country that is absolutely scarce of water by 2025.
According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Pakistan is the third most affected country in terms of water scarcity. Experts say that population growth and urbanization are the main reasons behind the crisis. The issue has also been exacerbated by climate change, poor water management and a lack of political will to deal with the crisis. Water problem in Pakistan is quite involved. It involves Islamic fundamentalists who oppose family planning thus making water scarcer every minute with the unbridled growth of population. If things remain so, Pakistan may be near water less at the time of its centenary in 2047 when its population would have gone past 300 million and demand for water would have increased by 60 per cent. Added to this would be the effects of climate change, i.e. increasing hot climate.
But the Pakistani government always blames India for not fulfilling its responsibilities under the Indus Water Treaty and also construction of new hydel projects on western rivers. But their water-related problems can only be attributed to Pakistan having drawn limited benefit from India’s benevolence, despite the fact that it has been receiving more than its authorised share. Projects being undertaken by India are in tune with the provisions of the treaty. In 1950, the water available per capita annually was 5,500 cubic metres when the population of the erstwhile West Pakistan was 33 million; at present, it is down to 850 cubic metres annually, while the population has increased to 210 million.
The overall quantity of water flowing in the western rivers to Pakistan remains approximately the same. As per a recent report, Pakistan is receiving about 154 MAF of water annually against an authorization of 136 MAF. The World Economic Forum rates the water crisis as the biggest risk in Pakistan, with terrorist attacks third on the list. Pakistan is facing the crisis due to poor management and anticipated reduction in intake through the nine trans-border rivers from Afghanistan and in the Indus river from China. The reduction in discharge is the result of construction of hydel power projects with storage facilities by Afghanistan and China. Shortage of water in Pakistan, thus, has very little to do with the non-adherence of the provisions of the treaty by India.
Despite having more glaciers than anywhere else in the world and its location in the Indus River Basin, Pakistan is at risk of acute water scarcity. Its surface and groundwater sources are both increasingly stressed and severe drought conditions persist in parts of the country. Water infrastructure in Pakistan is outdated and in poor condition, which wastes even more water, while little is stored because of a lack of reservoirs and sediment build-up in existing facilities.
The Pakistani authorities need to step up efforts to overcome the water crisis, which is partly man-made. First of all, Pakistan’s leaders and stakeholders need to take ownership of this challenge and declare their intention to tackle it. Simply blaming previous governments, or blaming India, for the crisis won’t solve anything. Next, the government needs to institute a major paradigm shift that promotes more judicious use of water. |
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