ISLAMABAD: Chief Justice of Pakistan Mian Saqib Nisar said on Saturday the Supreme Court was highlighting the issue of water security because it was the court’s duty to enforce the fundamental rights as guaranteed under the Constitution.

The most important fundamental right was the right to life which could not be ensured without water, said the chief justice and added that enforcement of fundamental rights should not be viewed as intrusion into others’ domain.

Chief Justice Nisar was speaking at the closing ceremony of the two-day international symposium on “Creating a Water-Secure Pakistan”, which was organised by the Supreme Court of Pakistan in collaboration with the Law and Justice Commission of Pakistan here.

“The quality of life in this part of the world will deteriorate further... if we fail to conserve it [water] today,” he said, adding that he was not willing to “destroy the country’s future” by sitting idle.

Declaration adopted at symposium calls for setting up of task force on water

The chief justice said that all Pakistanis should express their love for the country by working hard just as our founding fathers, including Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah, did.

He regretted that government representatives, who should have attended the symposium in large numbers, had wasted a good opportunity to learn from the submissions made at the event.

The Islamabad Declaration, which was adopted at the symposium, expressed deep concern over the amount of water currently present in Pakistan and pointed out that the per capita availability of surface water had declined from 5,260 cubic metres per year in 1951 to about 1,000 cubic metres in 2016, according to the national water policy.

The Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resources had already declared that the country “may run dry by 2025” if corrective measures were not taken soon, said the document.

According to the declaration, investments should be made for enhancing water supply (through dams and reservoirs) and better utilisation of groundwater should be ensured by adopting appropriate technologies (like recycling, desalination and water harvesting). Similarly, consumption of water should be managed properly through the principles of mutual trust among the provinces.

The International Water Law should be taken advantage of by consistently putting forward the country’s perspective before various world forums. Pakistan’s strategy regarding implementation of the Indus Waters Treaty should be revisited to bolster the country’s case.

The document urged the government to introduce water accounting based on modern data collection methods to assess the water availability situation and build trust among the provinces regarding water apportionment.

Effective salinity and sedimentation management techniques should be adopted to protect the country’s agricultural land and the storage capacity of dams and reservoirs. Numerous small and large dams and reservoirs should be constructed on a priority basis.

According to the declaration, innovative solutions regarding storage facilities for low gradient plains (coastal, barani and desert areas, etc) should be adopted. Also, the Indus Basin irrigation network should be extended which would bring several million acres of land under irrigation.

The document said it was no longer feasible to allow unfettered access to the valuable resource of water. Therefore, a fair water pricing model should be formulated and implemented by the competent regulatory institution.

The Indus Basin, one of the largest contiguous irrigation systems in the world, is facing challenges from climate change, population explosion, outdated agricultural practices, financial crunch and other factors that need to be addressed immediately.

Steps should be taken to set up and establish an appropriate Indus Basin Authority through a legal instrument having the mandate to ensure the basin’s integrity with all the requisite powers, resources and enforcement mechanisms, said the declaration.

Pakistan should set up a powerful task force on water, it said, adding that agriculture income tax be levied and recovered across the board, the declaration added.

Published in Dawn, October 21st, 2018