ADB and the World Bank can go on and on warning us but our rulers seem to be more worried about federation’s vitality.
LAHORE: A report of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) has said, “Pakistan is one of the most water-stressed countries in the world, not far from being classified as ‘water-scarce’, with less than 1,000 cubic metres per person per year”, down from 5,000 cubic metres in 1947. The report adds that Pakistan has failed to construct any major water reservoirs for over 40 years now and has a dangerously low storage capacity of only a 30-day supply for any disaster, natural or man-made. While the policymakers in Pakistan have turned a blind eye to this serious challenge, the ADB has warned that achieving agricultural productivity and strengthening food security requires improving the management, storage and pricing of water for irrigation.
The ADB and the World Bank can go on and on warning us but our rulers seem to be more worried about the federation’s vitality. A serious water shortage means shortage of food leading to food prices hitting the roof, with 12 crore people spending all their income on food, and all this will happen because of the federation’s ‘vitality’. Eighteen crore people are living on the same amount of water that eight crore survived on 38 years ago when the last major dam was built. Groundwater has receded to 200 feet, tube wells are drying up, town supplies are dwindling, and all this to save the federation’s ‘vitality’. Thirty million acres of land are lying barren but we will not build a dam to irrigate all this land for the sake of the federation’s ‘vitality’. The price the nation has paid so far for the federation’s vitality is $240 billion at the rate of $2 billion per million acre-feet; i.e., $12 billion per year over the last 20 years. This is not to mention the billions of rupees lost every year to the flood waters of Kabul, Chitral, Swat, Haro and Soan rivers.
Engr Khurshid Anwer
Published in The Express Tribune, July 13th, 2013.
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