International Monetary Fund (IMF) claims that Pakistan ranks in the third position of those countries that are facing a serious problem of shortage of water. Pakistan is mainly dependent on agriculture. Nearly 90 million of its population is directly or indirectly rely on agriculture. It means that shortage of water not only harms your land, making it infertile but you are also snatching meal from the people of Pakistan. It is an alarming condition for Pakistan and the condition will become more severe with passage of time. The major usage of water in Pakistan is in agriculture, human consumption, domestic usage, power generation, livestock, and for industrial purpose.
First we should know that we are located on a region where we have the natural opportunities if we want to avail but unluckily we are not taking the advantage of those natural resources. The main sources of water in Pakistan are from glaciers, monsoon season, subsoil water, lakes and sea. Wasting of water is one of the reasons of shortage of water but I think the main factor of the shortage is the exponential growth of population in this region which increases the demand of water and results in the shortage of water. Due to development of new societies which in one way cause the cutting down of trees and on the other hand these societies are developing in the fertile land and results in global warming. This is another huge topic which demands a brief discussion. Due to global warming our glaciers are melting day by day and causes one of the reasons of flood. Because we are not having enough dams to store this water, this reserve is also depleting. Hydro power projects thought to be one of the cheapest ways of getting energy. Shortage of water results in more load shedding in Pakistan. So there I was discussing about the problems related to the availability of water. Now if I said the availability of pure and clean water it is another vast topic to be discussed because in this area we also have to deal with pollution that man had created in the previous progress in industrialization.
Now coming towards the solution of this problem, first traditional method to store the water is the construction of dams in that area. But it will take too much time and too much costly. We are living in the region where we expose to maximum of the rainfall but unfortunately we are not taking the benefits of rainfall. If such kinds of civil structures have to be designed in our homes that will store the water from the rain. Such organizations should play role in creating awareness to control the population. We all should use water very carefully. Do not waste it and close the tap immediately after usage. For power generation, I as a mechanical engineer suggest such mini hydro projects should develop which will produce decentralized energy with the flow of water at a low cost which is environment friendly too.
WALEED NAZIR,
Islamabad, November 24.