Water mismanagement in Pakistan

Our part of the world is well accustomed to contending with droughts and floods. However, the intensity of these natural events is becoming increasingly evident. Witnessing the calamitous flooding which has wreaked havoc across the country this year, even the UN General Secretary stated that Pakistan is confronting “a monsoon on steroids”.

Disaster mitigation, disaster adaptation and the demand for climate reparations are all relevant issues to focus on, given the unfolding flood-triggered devastation being experienced by Pakistan. However, it is also important to pay closer attention to water governance issues, which played a major role in triggering the current flood catastrophe.

Pakistan has demonstrated a callous approach towards managing its natural resources including freshwater sources. Pakistan’s rivers are badly polluted, and its aquifers are severely stressed due to the unregulated and reckless use of groundwater for irrigation purposes.

Agriculture which takes up well over 90% of all available water in the country is inefficient and wasteful. It continues relying on water-intensive crops such as rice and sugarcane. Use of flood irrigation remains prevalent. Irrigational channels are also poorly maintained, causing immense water loss. Conversely, poorer farmers who often reside nearer the tail-end of irrigated watercourses often confront water shortages.

Pakistan’s current water woes have a long history. During the mid-1800s, British colonisers built the largest canal irrigation system off the Indus in Sindh and Punjab, accompanied by massive deforestation to underlay railway tracks to enable the transport of raw martials. This was, of course, not an act of colonial beneficences, but was motivated by the desire to grow more cash crops like cotton to feed the demand of textile mills in Manchester.

After the creation of Pakistan, many more dams, barrages and irrigational channels were constructed with the help of international donors such as the World Bank. These aggressive water engineering projects have severely hampered the natural flow of water to the Indus. The geographer, Daanish Mustafa, astutely points out that the colonial and post-colonial irrigational paradigm effectively curbed the natural cycle of high frequency-low intensity flood events which were vital for the natural ecology of this region. However, such interventions exchanged high frequency-low intensity events with low frequency-high intensity events which, along with climate change, are wreaking the destruction being witnessed in Pakistan at present.

Pakistan had formulated a National Water Policy in 2018 to take cognizance of the emergent water crisis and provide a framework for sustainable management of the country’s water resources. Besides addressing irrigational inefficiencies, this national policy was meant to ensure the adequate supply of safe drinking water to marginalised sections of the rural and urban populace, and to preserve natural water resources. However, the political will to implement these policies remains lackluster.

The former PTI government placed a lot of emphasis on reforestation. We also saw the formulation of other creative initiatives like Recharge Pakistan which envisioned reduction of flood risk and increase water storage and recharge through wetlands, floodplains, and hill-torrents management at six initial sites across the Indus Basin. Lessons emerging from such initiatives need to be paid attention to see if such efforts can be replicated on a broader scale.

Our country’s leaders need to overcome their infatuation with mega-infrastructure projects such as damns. Instead, they must pay attention to more ground-level interventions.

Paying heed to the adage ‘a stitch in time saves nine’, our decision-makers must ensure that all main roads, bridges and railway lines across flood-prone areas have adequate drainage mechanisms to facilitate natural flow of water into the Arabian Sea. The need to do so should now be self-evident given how floodwater in lower parts of the country did not recede like it should have. This stagnant water in turn has caused a spike in diarrhea, dysentery, dengue fever and malaria.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 4^th, 2022.

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