Persisting water crisis in the country might create serious security situation if the government failed to tackle the issue on an urgent basis. "Pakistan is confronted with many grave challenges and one of the major challenges is the mismanagement of the country's water resources," said Zohair Ashir, an expert on water issues in Pakistan. He said that there was a limited focus on water issues in the country, despite exponential growth of population, water wastage and pollution.
He apprehended that the country might face serious food security if water security was not ensured. Ashir, who is the Chairman of Hisaar Foundation, said that approximately 66 percent of the country's population depended on agriculture, and 96 percent of the water was used for agriculture purposes. He said that more than 30 percent of the country's population lived below the poverty line and 58 percent were now food insecure due to ill-planned use of water resources. He further said that the capacity of the country's water storage facilities were only for 30 days.
Ashir informed that 16 million people did not have access to safe water, while 68 million people lacked access to adequate sanitation and approximately 41,000 children die each year in the country due to unsafe water and poor sanitation. He said that Hissar Foundation's mission was to promote appropriate policies and creative low-cost solutions for water resources' development and conservation, besides addressing the broader climate change issues. In this scenario, he said the country needed to strive for ensuring a balance in terms of water allocation between different sectors and stakeholders.
"Securing sustainable water for all Pakistanis should be made a top priority of the government's national agenda," Ashir stressed. In the context of Pakistan, he said that water security was directly linked to national security, therefore the government and other stakeholders must take steps now to secure sustainable water for all to allay serious water conflicts in the future.
Ashir also spoke at length about the declining state of the country's water resources. He quantified in numbers rapid depletion of water resources, poor management of existing resources and inefficient use of water. He compared water productivity in Pakistan with those of China and India. Poor policy and implementation by all stakeholders in the water sector had led to deterioration and inefficiencies, he added.
Ashir however stated that it was not all doom and gloom for Pakistan in the water sector, as there were also pockets of change within the country which were adopting efficient practices. The challenge for Hisaar Foundation was to turn them into scalable and high impact operations with the support of the government and other stakeholders, he added.
He further told that on the basis of the framework and selection criteria, Hisaar Foundation had chosen five very important areas that needed to be addressed on priority basis that included: efficient management of the Indus Basin, Balochistan groundwater management, drought management and arid zones, urban water management and Indus Water Treaty/Trans-boundary Water.
Talking about different projects of Hisaar Foundation, Ashir told that the organisation was working to create awareness amongst students on water harvesting. Besides, it was also creating awareness on methods of rainwater harvesting in Thar Parkar. He said that the foundation had initiated Universities Academia programme (The Universities for Water Network). The vision of the network was to develop knowledge and skill base for the water sector, as well as water related disciplines, degrees, and departments that would be required by Pakistan in the next 100 years.
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