The twin cities of Rawalpindi/Islamabad as well as other big cities of the country would face a serious drinking water crisis in coming summer thanks to authorities concerned that have failed to build drinking water reservoirs.
"Per capita water availability at the time of creation of Pakistan was 5,600 cubic metres, which currently stands at only 1,000 cubic metres, placing Pakistan among water-scarce countries. To tackle the situation, the government should apply reasonable water usage charges to discourage wastage of the resource," Dr Mahmood Akhtar Cheema, Country Representative of International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
When contacted, an official of Water and Power Ministry said that India was constructing 11 big dams but Pakistan was still in a fix about building dams and a breakthrough was yet to be made. "Owing to climate changes, glaciers are melting. And in the absence of water conservation methods, we are experiencing heavy floods, leading to loss of many lives and damage to agriculture," he added. He said per capita water availability in the US was 6,000 cubic metres, in Australia 5,500 cubic metres and in China 2,200 cubic metres. In Pakistan, it is only 1,000 cubic metres, posing a threat to people's lives.
He expressed concern that no authority was working for saving groundwater and suggested that off-channel water reservoirs should be set up to preserve flood water and prevent loss to life and property. "This (saved) water can be used later," he stressed.
He said Punjab had around 1.3 million tube wells to pump out groundwater, which is bringing down the water level. Eighty per cent of the tube wells were being run on diesel, increasing the cost manifold and requiring application of alternative methods to deal with the situation, he stated.
According to the Pakistan Social And Living Standards Measurement Survey of 2010-11, the main source of drinking water was as follows: 32 percent tap water, 28 percent hand pump, 27 percent motor pump, 4 percent dug well and 9 percent others. Assuming that other sources are identical to unimproved water sources, access to an improved water source was 91 percent. For sanitation, the survey estimates that 66 percent had a flush toilet, 15 percent a non-flush toilet and 18 percent had no toilet at all. If all toilets were considered to be a form of improved sanitation, access according to this estimate would be 81 percent.
According to the National Drinking Water Policy (NDWP) of 2009, Pakistan's goal is to provide universal access to drinking water in an equitable, efficient and sustainable manner by 2025. The National Sanitation Policy of 2006 aims to meet the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) concerning sanitation by 2015 and to also reach universal access by 2025. Raja Shaukat Mahmood, Managing Director of Water and Sanitation Agency (Wasa) Rawalpindi talking to Business Recorder stressed the need for the construction of dams in the Potohar region to avert any possibility of water crisis in future. According to him there is scarcity of water in Pakistan. It is the need of the hour to augment new water sources to overcome the shortage of water in the country, especially in the Potohar region.