Recall from grade school years the map of Pakistan. Through hazy memory of geography lessons one can visualize the rough demarcations of the provinces with Balochistan easily being the biggest province. In fact, Balouchistan is nearly half of Pakistan, covering 44 percent of land but home to only 5 percent of the population.
Development wise, it is nearly at the bottom of the list contributing to only 8 percent of Pakistan’s GDP. While the province has a smorgasbord of under-developed natural attributes, one of most pressing and yet most ignored is water.
Historically, Balochistan has been known as a water-scare region. It geographical location isolates it from the Indus river irrigation system and most areas relies on small water storages and ground water. Already limited, these water resources have shrunk since the aftermath of 1998-99 droughts.
Former finance minister Salman Shah at a talk conducted by Pakistan Business Council highlighted the neglected status of the province while putting a number on its water potential. Pakistan has 200 million acre feet (MAF) of water of which 50 (MAF) is ground water; the value of each million acre feet of water is $2 billion. Admittedly, that is a very high figure to aim for and more in line with farming in developed economies rather than developing countries but it indicates the scope of potential for utilizing water resources.
According to an aged World Bank presentation of 2003, Balochistan has 2.5-3 MAF of unutilized flood water and 0.4 MAF of ground water. This indicates that the water potential in Balochistan is roughly 3 MAF with a value of $6 billion. More recent ADB documents also underline the importance of using floodwater since 60 percent of it is washed away in the sea. Because of water mismanagement, only 3.2 percent of Pakistan’s biggest province is irrigated.
Undoubtedly, Pakistan has agriculturally inefficient water practices with less than 15 percent of rain and river water actually reaching the crops. Since Baluchistan is the least developed, it is unrealistic to expect it to achieve its water potential. But assuming even a fraction of its water potential is realized, the rewards would amount to millions of dollars if not billions.
To give an example, even without fertilizer at per hectare yield of wheat in rain-fed areas of the province is the highest in the country because land is mostly virgin and nutritional. Similarly, it is the fastest growing province in terms of horticulture with applies apricots, and grapes growing at about 5-6 percent per annum as compared to stagnant or negative numbers in other provinces. Given that Balochistan’s GDP was estimated at $8.6 billion in FY16, accessing its water potential would significantly boost the provincial and national economy as its agriculture’s efficiency per hectare of crop produced is higher.
Tragically, no one is trying to achieve a proportion of its potential nor it is on anyone’s radar. As Shah mentioned in his talk, to the best of his knowledge no member of Baluchistan’s provincial or national assembly has raised the question “where is our water”. Without a narrative or a rhetoric building pressure to address Baluchistan’s water potential, its water tables will continue declining away and its water resources will dry up and remain ignored similar to its other natural attributes.
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