Water-intensive: Rice export earnings come with a price

UAF VC says every kilo of rice consumes 4,000 litres of water.

FAISALABAD: Pakistan is earning $2 billion on rice exports at a huge cost of water consumption, since rice consumes 4,000 litres of water for every kilogram. This is particularly alarming since Pakistan is deemed as one of the water-scarce countries of the world.

The Vice-Chancellor of the University of Agriculture Faisalabad (UAF), Prof Iqrar Ahmad Khan pointed this fact out at the ‘National Seminar on Water for Human Development’ on the university campus, organised by the Water Management Research Centre (WMRC).

Commenting on the deepening water crisis Khan said, “It is important to switch the country’s focus on water efficient crops.” Khan warned that Pakistan was threatened by a severe water crisis which can cause devastation in the coming years, unless necessary steps were taken to create awareness amongst the people to use water with prudence and increase its storage.

WMRC Director Prof Dr Allah Baksh and Dr Amna Khan from Mahbub-Ul-Haq Human Development Centre LUMS also addressed the seminar.

Baksh said that “along with surface water, ground storage water must be increased. We are pumping heavy groundwater with the use of tubewells.” He suggested setting up a mechanism of recycling the water for making it re-usable.

Amna Khan said that “water has not been a top policy agenda for the South Asian countries.”

Published in The Express Tribune, November 30^th, 2013.

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