Water woes

The United Nations has warned that water shortages in several parts of the world have reached chronic proportions and without a crackdown on waste the situation will further aggravate. The report makes four cogent points: (i) population growth and a shift to meat-intensive diet will drive up demand for food leading to a 20 percent rise in agricultural water consumption; (ii) abstraction of aquifers has tripled in the past 50 years and there is a need for water management and to curb waste; (iii) climate induced global water problems is estimated at 13.7 to 19.2 billion dollars; and (iv) 2.5 billion have no access to sanitation. Researchers from Columbia University looked at the causes of water shortages in American Southeast (including Georgia) between 2005 and 2007. The findings revealed two major elements: (i) studying data from weather instruments, computer models and measurements of tree rings which reflect rainfall, the researchers found that droughts were not unprecedented and resulted from normal climate patterns and random weather events. Similar weather patterns were evident during the last thousand years the researchers maintained and concluded that regardless of El Nino similar weather patterns can be expected in future; and (ii) Georgia's population rose to 9.54 million from 6.48 million between 1990 and 2007. Thus their conclusion was the rise in population has played a much greater role in global water scarcity than climate change. The President of the Population Institute Lawrence Smith stated that that although an overwhelming majority of the planet is composed of water, 97% of this water is saltwater. It is fresh water that sustains life and that is only 3% of the total amount of water on Earth. While there is available technology to convert salt water into fresh water yet the amount of energy required to convert saline into potable water is prohibitive at this point in time. Thus until and unless the cost of this conversion comes down it is unlikely that this would present an economically viable approach. It is, therefore, safe to conclude that competition for water in an over-populated world would pose a major threat to human stability. Competition may be a good thing from the perspective of basic economic theory yet the fact is that it is the rich who have the capacity to win the competition for accessing a scarce commodity. Thus it would surprise no one to learn that the rich use water considerably more wastefully than the poor. In nearly all countries of the world the rich use potable water for watering their lawns as well as washing their cars while in slums in major cities the poor are hard pressed to access clean potable water. Pakistan reflects a similar scenario where the poor have limited access to clean drinking water while the rich waste that water; and this is in spite of sustained efforts on the part of our governments, past as well as present, to enhance the numbers who have access to clean potable water. Additionally, Pakistan is a lower riparian country and the source of our rivers is in India or Afghanistan. The Indus Water Treaty survived two wars between India and Pakistan proving that it was a successful mechanism in resolving conflicts by providing a framework for consultation inspection and exchange of data. However, in recent years, Pakistan has been compelled to seek arbitration for India's sustained violation of the Treaty. There are many who maintain that Pakistan is slow in going for arbitration (for example Baglihar dam) and by the time the process of arbitration is invoked by our government, India has already completed a substantial part of the construction of a dam with no arbitrator expected to argue in favour of a roll back. Pakistan is, therefore, required to take three measures on an emergent basis to deal with the growing water scarcity problem that the country has been grappling with for over a decade: (i) population growth needs to be checked and it is hoped that a more proactive programme is formulated and implemented; (ii) there are large pockets in the country where potable water is not available and the government needs to focus on these areas. However, water charges for high domestic users need to be managed through prohibitive rates above a specific monthly consumption; and (iii) Pakistan government needs to take action promptly with respect to India's violations of the Indus Treaty. Copyright Business Recorder, 2012