A looming drought

Pakistan has no shortage of existential threats, some of them more existential than others. The threats that tend to grab the headlines revolve around security and terrorism or extremism. Even if there was an extremist coup tomorrow or a Taliban takeover, there would remain a far greater threat in the longer term to the sustainability of the state i.e., a lack of water. The state has survived extremes of governance before and has passed through difficult times in the fight against obscurantist elements — but there is no fight that can be successfully waged against a creeping drought.

The Pakistan Council of Research on Water Resources (PCRWR) is warning that the country is going to reach what it describes as “absolute water scarcity” by the year 2025 — a mere nine years hence. This is going to impact the lives of many millions and is going to be a long-term effect rather than a passing cloud. Given the magnitude of a known and advancing problem, it would be expected that the agency charged with research into mitigating the effects of drought was appropriately funded. Unsurprisingly, it is not, which is something typical of dysfunctional and shortsighted governance. There are no funds for sustainable research and the PCRWR has recently begged the government to set up an endowment fund to support the promotion of research, the coordination of drought-alleviating measures and the organisation of the management of water resources. We strongly support the PCRWR in its hunt for funding. Water is essential, a non-negotiable factor that overrides every other imperative. The sum the PCRWR is looking for is peanuts — Rs50 million — for work that is vital to the survival of the state as we know it today. This is not too great a price to pay for the vital work that may save many in the future. Climate change is unstoppable and Pakistan is one of the countries most affected by it. Himalayan glacier melt and the ensuing drought is unstoppable. The El Nino effect is beyond human control. A small investment in essential research today will pay dividends in all our futures. Make it. Soon.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 31^st, 2016.

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