Pakistan dumps water into the sea worth $22 billion every year because of lack of storage capacity and no water conservation practices. Briefing the Senate forum chaired by Senator Nayyar Hussain Bokhari, Chairman Indus Water Authority Sher Zaman Kkan warned if current water crisis continued, it would create food insecurity as the country would not be able to produce major crops like wheat, rice, maize and cotton. He urged to focus on the construction of big water reservoirs and improvement in the water conservation system. The meeting was informed that monsoon rains are a major source of water in the country which amounts 80 percent of total water resources, whereas the remaining 20 percent comes from other sources.
Pakistan is the only country in the world where its leadership intentionally ignores the importance of Water Policy for the construction of water reservoirs and forcing feudal with large landholding to conserve water by incorporating management practices. Aversion to the construction of big dams has been a salient feature of development planning of elected governments. The dams of Tarbel, Mangla and Warsak were built in President Ayub Khan Era who is condemned a dictator by political oligarchy that is responsible for the colossal loss and wastage of available water resources. After the completion of Tarbela dam Z.A Bhutto could have launched Kalabagh dam without any opposition from smaller provinces but this multi dimensional mega project of national importance was deliberately ignored in order to establish his supremacy and destroy the economic growth which was 8.5% per annum in the leadership of General Ayub Khan. They do realize the grave consequences of imminent water shortage by dumping of millions of Cusecs of water from rivers into the sea. The then Minster of Water and Power Khwaja Muhammad Asif verbally issued a warning three years ago that the country will turn into a desert if big dams were not constructed. But he did not make efforts to pursued former Prime Minster Nawaz Sharif to allocate sufficient resources for the construction dams, nor did PML (N) leadership showed interest to build census for the construction of Kalabagh dam. The political leadership has converted the technical issue of Kalabagh dam into a political controversy of life and death which otherwise could have been amicably resolved by the experts. Former Minister of water and Power Aftab Shepao used to rebut the statement of Chairman WAPDA highlighting its benefits accrued to the southern districts of KP, Punjab and Sindh. There will be 36 percent water shortage of irrigation water during the current Rabi season.
Silting is reducing the storage capacity of Tarbela and Mangla dams as about 500,000 of silt deposits in these dams every day. If Basha dam is built the silting rate of Tarbela water storage will drop prolonging the latter’s life by a number of decades. The silting factor has already reduced the storage capacity of these major reservoirs by 12 percent. As Pakistan use 93 percent of its fresh water on agriculture, there is a need of improving the efficiency rate of water utilization which currently stands at 50 percent. Moreover, an innovative technique of drip irrigation has to been integrated in our farming system. The United Nation is of the opinion that potential saving due to the increase in efficiency of water usage for agriculture can be worth $ 115 billion annually by 2030 globally. Furthermore, the provision of more efficient water technologies to about 100 million farmers will give an estimated direct net benefit of $ 100-200 billion in terms of food security. Modernization of agriculture is vital for economic growth. According to Pakistan Economic Survey 2016-17 the share of agricultural output in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is 19.5 percent. The sector employs an astounding 42.3 percent of the labor force. As the population rise, the need for agricultural production also increases. Water requirements for different crops including wheat and rice could rise steeply in the forthcoming decades. It makes the construction of dams on priority basis all the more important besides introduction water conservation technologies.
