Water Scarcity:

Problems associated with water are perhaps amongst the most important in Pakistan. The country’s water profile has changed drastically in that it went from being a water-abundant country to a water-stressed country. Per capita water availability during the period 1990–2015 fell from 2,172 to 1,306 cubic metres per inhabitant. Pakistan extracts almost 75 per cent of its “freshwater annually, thereby exerting tremendous pressure on renewable water resources.

over 27 million Pakistanis still do not have access to safe water and almost 53m do not have access to adequate sanitation facilities.Approximately 39,000 children under the age of five die every year from diarrhoea



Causes(Demand Side):
The increasing demand for and erratic supply of water in Pakistan is resulting in severe shortages. Factors such as population growth, rapid urbanisation, water-intensive farming practices and industrialisation are all playing a role in increasing the country’s demand for water.

Causes (Supply Side):
The supply side is simultaneously affected by climate change, which, in turn, has made rainfall more erratic and led to both floods and droughts. Excessive groundwater pumping has raised major sustainability concerns. Poor water infrastructure, including limited storage capacity and inadequate canal lining, compounds water availability issues.



Initiatives by Government:
Pakistan has not implemented any major water storage infrastructure projects since the commissioning of the Mangla and Tarbela dams in the 1960s and 1970s, and water storage capacity has often receded to less than 30 days whereas the minimum requirement is 120 days. Successful initiatives do exist, such as the Clean Drinking Water for All project laun*ched in Punjab, which provided clean drinking water through new water filtration plants. However, major initiatives are still limited.


Solution:
This would include measures to promote efficient use through water pricing, increasing water storage infrastructure, enforcing strict water quality management systems to curb water pollution, controlling population growth and adopting sustainable urbanisation patterns. Immediate attention to these proposals will help ensure that Pakistanis have adequate water.


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