Today, water is one of our most precious resources; one that is under immense pressure because of Indian withdrawals, environmental changes, demographic pressure and bad water management practices- all of which are threatening water availability which has dropped below critical levels, making Pakistan a water scarce country. Our glaciers are melting, rainfall patterns are changing and underground acquifiers are depleting fast. The situation requires immediate attention, as we need to adopt better water management practices to address this existential threat.
Pakistan has been blessed with an enviable array of natural gifts, but mismanagement and short sightedness has resulted in their wastage, turning the opportunities of the past into major challenges today. In the words of Paulo Coelho, “Every blessing ignored becomes a curse.”
When it comes to water, Pakistan is indeed a blessed country. The journey of water starts from the peaks of the Himalayas and Karakorum. In the form of snowmelt, through numerous streams, water makes its way into the eastern and western tributaries of the Indus, ultimately converging with the river which flows into the sea. On its way it is joined by rain water from the monsoons. In addition, there are large reservoirs of underground water pumped in through tube wells.
At the moment, we are harnessing part of this water through one of the world’s largest integrated irrigation systems. According to Pakistan’s vision of water resource management, this irrigation system consists of 3 major storage reservoirs, 19 barrages, 12 inter river link canals and 45 independent irrigation canal commands. In total, the length of all kinds of canals is 64,000 km, whereas the length of the watercourses is more than 1.5 million kilometres.
Water harnessed from this system is used for irrigation, hydro power generation, industrial and domestic use. Agriculture is the biggest consumer of water, as it uses around 90 percent of available water.
Despite these resources, how we have ended up as a water scarce nation, is confounding. Perhaps, the answer to this question lies with the environmental challenges and bad water management practices prevalant in Pakistan.
Our biggest problem, which will become even bigger, is our soaring population. As the availability of natural resources diminishes, their demand is rising fast. In 1950, we had a population of 34 million and per capita availability of water was 5300 m cube. Today, our population has risen to 185 million and the per capita availability of water has slipped below 1000 m cube, and expected to go down further to 659 m cube in the next fifteen years.
Global warming is another major conundrum. Pakistan is contributing to 0.34 percent of global green house gases and is amongst the ten countries most vulnerable to climate change, which is going to affect our glaciers (which contribute more than thirty percent of river water). Secretary Climate Change Division Raja Hasan Abbas said late last year at a conference in Islamabad, “23 percent of the people in Pakistan are at risk for floods. The glaciers will melt in the next two to three decades and after that, we will face an acute water shortage due to which the risk of food scarcity will increase.”
Changing climate is also going to affect the patterns of rainfall in South Asia. According to a US report, climate change “may result in less rainfall over India, Nepal and Pakistan and cause more rainfall over the Indian Ocean, Bangladesh and Burma.”
This situation has been further aggravated by the mismanagement of our water resources. Since the Indus Water’s Treaty and the consequent construction and upgrade of water management infrastructure, nothing much has been done for the efficient utilisation of water.
Our three main water reservoirs have lost around 30 percent of their capacity owing to sedimentation, and our irrigation system has become so inefficient that more than half of the water fed into it is lost before reaching the farm gates.
According to the United Nations, the global water crisis is largely a management issue. We need a water management policy, aimed at proper and judicious use of water and its conservation. Most of the surface water is lost in irrigation and this loss can be avoided if we line our canals to prevent seepage, and promote better irrigation practices at the farm level.
We are in dire need of more reservoirs and dams to conserve water. For effective water management, the storage capacity should be around 40 percent of available water whereas in our case it is less than 7 percent. More dams will also help us save the water lost to the sea while preventing floods, which are becoming frequent because of climate change.
Water is a source of life. It’s scarcity will adversely affect all the facets of our existence. If we don’t manage our water resources and fail to collaborate with India on water sharing, we might witness a major socio-economic and political upheaval, putting this region into the abyss of perpetual conflict. We could in fact, end up with the gravest challenge of the twenty first century.

The writer is a freelance columnist and has worked as a broadcast journalist.

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