Pakistan’s water scarcity: tough time ahead!!!
Amid tensions of dwindling central government of Pakistan due to recent JIT report and growing antagonism by opposition parties on Panama gate matter, an important meeting of the Public Accounts Committee held on 12th July. In this meeting the most burning issue was constantly growing and formidable trouble of water scarcity in Pakistan. Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) Chairman retired Lt Gen Muzamil Hussain said on this occasion that Pakistan wastes water worth Rs25 billion every year. According to Hussain Pakistan receives 145 million acre feet of water every year. However, only 14 million acre feet of water are preserved.
A recent UNDP draft report on the water crisis in Pakistan "Development Advocate Pakistan," sheds light on a serious, albeit much-neglected, conflict the South Asian country is grappling with. The Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resources (PCRWR) warned that the country may run dry by 2025 if the authorities didn't take immediate action. Pakistan touched the "water stress line" in 1990 and crossed the "water scarcity line" in 2005.
Pakistan has the world's fourth highest rate of water use. Its water intensity rate - the amount of water, in cubic meters, used per unit of GDP - is the world's highest. This suggests that no country's economy is more water-intensive than Pakistan's.
According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Pakistan is already the third most water-stressed country in the world. Its per capita annual water availability is 1,017 cubic meters - perilously close to the scarcity threshold of 1,000 cubic meters. Back in 2009, Pakistan's water availability was about 1,500 cubic meters.
Causes
The bulk of Pakistan's farmland is irrigated through a canal system. There are 12 Inter canals and 45 canals to meet the needs of water in Pakistan. More than 70 percent of total canal water used for agriculture purposes. Ravi, Sutlej Jhelum Chenab and Indus are the main rivers which are the base of this canal system. But the IMF says in a report canal water is vastly underpriced, recovering only one-quarter of annual operating and maintenance costs. Meanwhile, agriculture, which consumes almost all annual available surface water, is largely untaxed.
Experts say that population growth and urbanization are the main reasons behind the crisis. The issue has also been exacerbated by climate change, poor water management, and a lack of political will to deal with the crisis.
Food habits and behavior of Pakistan’s peoples is one of the potential causes. In Pakistan’s primary sector 55% weigtage to cattle’s for feeding. Producing 1 kilo of rice, for example, requires about 3,500 liters of water, 1 kilo of beef some 15,000 liters, and a cup of coffee about 140 liters. This dietary shift is the greatest to impact on water consumption over the past 30 years.
Pakistan being the comparatively less green house gases producer country but most vulnerable for facing green house gases effect. Intense heat waves and drought periodically increased in future, monsoon season change their pattern as well only 10 to15 % rain will fall in Karachi and costal belt of Sindh province and 20 to 25 % rain will fall in northern areas which eventually increased the drought period in these areas.
Recent financial implications
Tarbella dam is the life line for thousands of villages. Lt Gen Muzamil Hussain said in the meeting that due to soil gathering at the base of Tarbela Dam, the storage capacity of the dam has decreased by 36 per cent. The dam’s storage capacity has declined from 9.6 million acres feet (MAF) to about 6.6 MAF. This is notable that Tarbela dam is one of the world’s largest earth-filled dams, was completed in 1978 with the World Bank’s assistance
Hussain also revealed that all of Wapda projects had incurred a total of Rs300bn in debt. Annually, about Rs40bn is repaid, of which Rs5bn consists of loans, while Rs35bn comprises annual interest payments. Total annual payments come to about Rs57bn when the project cost is added to this amount. For these purposes Pakistan arranged money by “Sukook” like instruments. [Sukook is a kind of Islamic bonds, structured in such a way as to generate returns to investors without infringing Islamic law (that prohibits riba or interest). Sukook represents undivided shares in the ownership of tangible assets relating to particular projects or special investment activity. A sukook investor has a common share in the ownership of the assets linked to the investment although this does not represent a debt owed to the issuer of the bond.]
According to Hussain three sukook bonds have been issued since 1987 to raise capital for various Wapda projects. The first bond worth Rs8bn was issued to finance the Mangla Dam, the second worth Rs25bn was issued to raise money for the waterworks .Hussain added that since 1987, three sukook bonds have been paid off and Rs41bn in debt has been paid off against the three bonds with an interest rate of 7.5pc.
In annual budget of Pakistan 2017-18 which was presented by Minister of finance Mr. Ishaq Dar on 26th May, there is a lot of schemes which will feed upon 5.1 trillion Pakistani Rs. proposed outlay, but CPEC and related schemes remains the blue eyed boys for Pakistan government and water security poses as second rated priorities which are neglected due to Chinese sponsored saturnalia going on.
The scarcity of water is also triggering security conflicts in and also out of the country. India and Afghanistan are two measure natural targets for Pakistani establishments but there is internal rift too. Experts say the economic impact of the water crisis is immense, and the people are fighting for resources. Three out of four Pakistani provinces blame the most populous and politically empowered province, Punjab, for usurping their water sources. This is a clear danger for already vulnerable food security of Pakistan and the threat is indubitable before millions of indigent folks.