WHILE the chief of the Water and Power Development Authority has warned that the situation relating to water availability in the country is getting worse by the day, the federal government has reduced budgetary allocations for water development projects.

The allocations have been cut down to Rs31.2bn from last year’s Rs46bn. This is despite a consensus on the urgency to build storages to prevent a looming water crisis in the country. Wapda has been assigned the task of consulting stakeholders to finalise the government’s initiative on water security, the official told a consultative session in Quetta attended by senior academic figures, experts and bureaucrats.

One may recall that the federal government is currently in the process of framing a water policy, which should be ready by the end of the year.

So far, water development projects are not on the federal government’s priority for 2015-16.

The federal government is currently in the process of framing a water policy, which should be ready by the end of the year

The urgency to conserve water and to prevent its wastage is evident from the unusual proposal made by the Indus River System Authority (Irsa) this March. It asked the government to freeze the country’s entire development spending for five years and divert the funds for the construction of mega water reservoirs, having a storage capacity of at least 22 million acre feet (MAF), on a war footing.

Local and international institutions, including the World Bank and the US Senate’s foreign affairs committee, have been warning Pakistan about major water crises like floods and droughts in the next 10-40 years owing to the unusually fast depletion of the Himalayan glaciers, low storage capacity and other related uncertainties.

Reports say these glaciers, contributing over 80pc to the Indus’ water — which, in turn, meets over 65pc of the agriculture sector’s water requirement — are receding at a rate of 30-50 metres annually. The Himalayas contain the world’s third-largest ice mass after Antarctica and Greenland.

Saying the water sector should not be ignored in the way it has been in the past, Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal also recently warned that the coming generations “would not forgive us if we don’t take appropriate steps” immediately.

Meanwhile, there is some fear that there might be a 15pc water shortage during this year’s rabi season (October-March), although the country has experienced a wet year with record river flows due to better climatic conditions.

Owing to better flows, the irrigation requirements were comfortably met in the kharif season. This also helped fill the Tarbela Dam to its maximum capacity on August 9 and the Mangla Dam on August 22.

But because of the extreme volatility in river flows (caused by climate change), both reservoirs began depleting fast. By September 29, the water level in the Tarbela Dam had reduced to 4.01MAF from 6.36MAF. Similarly, water in Mangla decreased to 6.35MAF against its maximum storage level of 7.37MAF.

However, the country’s water situation would have been worse had the project to raise the Mangla Dam not been completed. It provided more than 2MAF of additional water, virtually rescuing the country from about a 25pc shortage.

High flows in rivers are not much of an advantage as they ultimately cause floods if the country has no proper storage facilities. While the predicted water shortage in rabi season is manageable, more storage facilities are needed to help increase the cultivable area.

While Pakistan has the world’s most extensive irrigation system, the system is not without inherent flaws. For instance, it is marked by an inequitable distribution of water, particularly to the tail-enders. Water flows at the head of the watercourse are greater than at the end.

This anomaly is a colonial legacy inherited by our rulers. When the British constructed the Indus basin irrigation system, they ensured that farmers belonging to more ‘loyal’ tribes or castes were given preferential access to the head reaches of the canals and the watercourses. The poor farmers were allotted lands in the tail reaches where they had less access to water. As a result, they resorted to pumping groundwater.

Two studies published on June 16 by American scientists say human activity is leading to a rapid draining of about one-third of the planet’s largest underground water reserves, and it is unclear how much water remains in them. Already, 2bn people worldwide rely on groundwater for daily use.

Groundwater in Pakistan is rapidly running out. If the trend continues, the groundwater table will come under severe pressure. The world’s most overstressed source is the Arabian Aquifer System, which provides water for more than 60m people. According to the Punjab irrigation department, the province’s water table is going down by three feet every year.

Published in Dawn, Business & Finance weekly, November 23rd, 2015