Business community has expressed serious concern over the statement of Indian Prime Minister's threatening to revoke Indus Water Treaty (IWT). They urged the government to construct new dams and renovation of existing water resources for reducing the wastage of water. Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) Regional Standing Committee Chairman Ahmad Jawad has said the threat of cut off flow of water to Pakistan is not just vacuous it needlessly pits India against the people of Pakistan by playing on an insecurity that has a deeper psychological effect than the threat of a war.
He said that IWT was an international agreement and India cannot revoke it, but it seemed Indian government was determined to set aside the formal contract and want to take control over Jhelum river to make a negative impact on Pakistan agriculture sector which would not be acceptable at all. He hailed the government decision to approach the World Bank and International court of arbitration over the issue.
Jawad said industrialised nations in Europe have water storage capacity of 90 days but Pakistan, which is an agricultural country, has storage capacity of 30 days which must be increased to one thousand days. "We have the world's best canal system but up to 50 percent of water is wasted which is not acceptable. Moreover, around 145 million acre feet of water passes through the country. Of this, a major portion is wasted," he added.
He said that per capita water availability which was 5,600 cubic meters in 1947 has reduced to 1,000 cubic meters. The FPCCI said that the gap between demand and supply will reach one billion cubic meters in a decade. Therefore, he said, water should be declared a matter of national security to save the country from becoming a desert.
Jawad also said that Pakistan has glaciers stretched over 13,680 km which will be gone within two decades. Rivers are drying up leaving people with only option ie, to use ground water which in turn is pushing down the water table. Senior Vice President FPCCI Shaikh Khalid Tawab said that India can't revoke the treaty unilaterally as the World Bank was also a party to this treaty as a guarantor. "India is not the sole party for decision making and Pakistan has also the right to go to International Arbitration Centre," he added. He further stated that if India revoke Indus water treaty, it will face international reaction and may be stoppage of water from China. He stated that water crisis had become a critical issue in the recent years because of depletion, over exploitation and pollution of water resources.
"Pakistan is one of the developing nations that is facing severe shortage of water due to the lack of storage capacity, mismanagement, infrastructural weakness and reservoirs and average 70 percent of rain water goes to Arabian Sea every year," he added. He also underscored the need of having water policy with the co-ordination of provincial governments which was drafted many times in the past but not approved as yet. Tawab also stressed on the control of evaporation-losses from reservoirs and creation of reliable data of water resources and its usage. The discharge of industrial and domestic wastewater into open water-bodies and groundwater is the main threat to the country's water-reserves, which deteriorate the quality of water day by day and is the major cause of diseases. President Pakistan Businessmen and Intellectuals Forum (PBIF), Mian Zahid Hussain said threat issued by Prime Minister of India to stop Pakistan's water has highlighted the importance of dams and reservoirs in Pakistan.
The threat should not be taken lightly and masses should unite to bury the politics on dams forever in the larger national interest as India braces for a water war, he said. Hussain said that India continue to use water as a weapon against Pakistan which can damage peace in the region with global implications. He said that dams and reservoirs were technical issues which have been transformed into serious political issues, which is against the national interests as water scarcity continue to increase across the country posing serious threat. Scarcity of water continue to increase across the country which has diverted attention towards ground water that is damaging water table, he noted.