The country is among the leading five nations that face extremely high water scarcity
ISLAMABAD: Recently International Water Day was observed in a bid to spread the message of effective water management globally. Unfortunately, in Pakistan, it remained ignored for the most part.
According to the World Resource Institute, the country is among the leading five nations that face extremely high water scarcity and low access to safe drinking water and sanitation. Similarly, the UN has categorised Pakistan amongst those few unfortunate countries where water shortage will destabilise and jeopardise its existence in the next few decades.
Today a quarter to a third of Pakistan’s population lacks access to safe drinking water. According to the recent report of Unicef, 53,000 Pakistani children die of diarrhoea after drinking contaminated water every year. Hence, more effective in measures are required to mitigate the water deficit.
Many developing countries are adopting a strategy of water-pricing that needs to be implemented in the country for better and efficient use of water. According UNDP, the development of lesser levelling technology and furrow bed irrigation has resulted in saving 30 per cent of water and has led to increasing water productivity by 25 per cent in Punjab. Its scope needs to be widened across Pakistan to achieve water availability.
Abdul Ghani Chohan
Published in The Express Tribune, April 13th, 2018.
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