The water crisis plaguing the country at the moment is of utmost importance. The scarcity of water in Pakistan, the lack of planning and the minimal number of dams available to collect the water are three aspects which every mainstream party, contesting the elections, should be focusing on. The water available to the public is already infected by arsenic which poisons the water and causes a number of health hazards when consumed. The project initiated to deal with this problem in Punjab, the Saaf Paani Project, is also under investigation for funds embezzlement. Under these circumstances, it is not surprising that the capital city Islamabad is low on its water reserves and only has ten to fifteen days of water supply left if no rain hits the city.
Back in February, it was reported that the city was only being supplied forty percent of its water demands. This was the lack of planning by the civic management and was affecting the urban areas of the city. It was later reported in April that the Simly dam, which was the second largest source of water supply to Islamabad, was going to run dry soon because water was being drawn at a rate of 20 million gallons per day.
The causes are simple and point towards the lack of interest of the authorities to take the issue seriously. There is no denying that the lack of rainfall also adds up to the problem but a major factor in this regard is how the Capital Development Authority (CDA) did not come up with a strategy. To make matters worse, they continued to draw 35 million gallons of water per day during the winters.
The caretaker set up in place needs to be alerted so that the Senate Standing Committee can be pushed to be more vigilant about the matter and come up with a strategy to resolve the issue. The short-term solution to this crisis is supplying potable water for the demands of the growing city population. However, a long-term solution needs to be devised as soon as possible because this crisis will hit Pakistan adversely, especially because of the disadvantage of climate change and Pakistan being at the risk of being adversely affected.