Our intensifying water woes

Building controversial dams with unconvincing fund initiatives is taking the country no where

The writer is a research analyst and a lecturer at the Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto University of Law

Water crisis is undoubtedly one of Pakistan’s most pivotal internal security challenges. The UN has predicted that Pakistan will dry up by 2025. Recently, many social awareness programmes including the former CJP’s Dam Fund initiative showed signs of hope.

However, little has been done to curtail the looming water crisis and even less to address the crucial issue of climate change. With every passing decade, natural disasters with no structurally feasible solutions are surfacing. Climate change will only intensify our water woes. Around one-third or 33% of Pakistan’s glaciers will be depleted by 2100, even if global warming is held at 1.5 degrees Celsius. This would impact our overall water, energy, and food security.

At first, due to accelerated global warming, Pakistan will witness an unprecedented increase in floods throughout the country, which will disrupt nearly all our key development sectors.

According to the World Food Programme (WFP), six out of 10 Pakistanis are already food insecure. Our economy is in shambles and is only witnessing a downward trajectory. Not to forget, the floods of 2010 cost Pakistan a staggering $9.7 billion.

Thousands of homes were completely wiped off. We are still facing grave side effects of these floods. Will Pakistan sustain even more calamitous floods in the future?

An already paralysed country with rising political and economic uncertainty it will face severe water scarcity over the next few years. Pakistan is completely dependent on its glaciers which feed over 200 million people. In a few decades, the World Bank predicts that our population will double. How is the government going to manage our water resources?

The impact of water crisis is already being felt especially in the underdeveloped regions. Senator Sherry Rehman, who is also Chairman of the Senate’s Causus on Climate Change — said that there is not even a single drop of water to drink in Gwadar. The situation will only worsen in the coming decades.


The Pakistani government has been solely relying on building dams to resolve our water crisis. Building controversial dams with unconvincing fund initiatives is taking the country no where.

According to a recent World Bank report on water, more than 80% of our water resources are allocated to agriculture. This prodigal figure must be curtailed in order to manage our resources efficiently. Yes, Pakistan runs on an agrarian economy — however, it does not justify the amount of water used in the agriculture sector.

Our agriculture sector is outdated. The Pakistani government must initiate programmes to revamp our entire agriculture sector and allocate water resources more efficiently. Drip and sprinkle irrigation — combined with lining our fangled canals will us save water equivalent to twice the size of the controversial Kala Bagh Dam. It is high time for our water committees in Parliament to convert proposals into real-time work.

What is most important is a functional Council of Common Interests (CCI). The CCI is where Chief Ministers of the provinces sit at the same table with the PM’s cabinet. All provinces despite their political differences must be on the same page when it comes to water security. To save Pakistan from its looming water crisis, all provinces must unite and eliminate this menacing threat promptly.

Our glaciers are melting. Droughts are intensifying, while our oceans are acidifying with methane plums rising up from the ocean floor. All this is happening decades ahead of scientific projections.

Pakistan’s water crisis will create massive hurdles in the coming decades. The best we could do now is minimise the damage and use our water resources efficiently. It is now time to take climate change more seriously than ever.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 20th, 2019.

Load Next Story