Responding to the water crisis in Pakistan

Abstract

In recent years, Pakistan has suffered from severe water shortages, flooding and declining water quality. The worsening water crisis must be resolved if the country is ever to achieve stability and develop. Using water more efficiently is a necessary but insufficient strategy. Far deeper changes are required, including cultural and social paradigm shifts that will help the country evolve from a feudal society to a modern one. A blueprint for managing the water crisis is suggested that includes slowing population growth, increasing education, using less water in agriculture, and normalizing relations with India.

Notes

Correspondence address: Naser I. Faruqui, 250 Albert Street, PO Box 8500, Ottawa, Canada K1G 3H9. Email: [email protected]

Population using improved water sources is defined as “the percentage of the population with reasonable access to an adequate amount of drinking water from improved sources. Reasonable access is defined as the availability of at least 20 litres per person per day from a source within 1 km of the user's dwelling. Improved sources include household connections, public standpipes, boreholes with handpumps, protected dug wells, protected springs and rainwater collection (not included are vendors, tanker trucks and unprotected wells and springs)” (UNDP, 2001)

This figure is based on medium‐variant projections.

This figure is based on medium‐variant projections.

The Water Vision figures are somewhat higher than those of the World Bank, which lists annual deforestation (% of change) as 1.1% for 2000 (World Bank, 2002).

Why was Pakistan able to reach agreement on the Indus Basin Treaty with India, with which it has fought three wars, while internally the provinces are still wrangling on water sharing? Perhaps the incentives to refrain from conflict are weaker within state boundaries, since concepts such as minority rights do not have the same persuasiveness as the concept of sovereignty, which serves as a strong check on outwardly aggressive state behaviour, and has been a long‐accepted common norm (Ehrlich et al., 2000). Thus, in this sense, Pakistan had no good unilateral recourse in its dispute with India, and therefore more incentive to agree more rapidly to the Indus Treaty.

In fact, the Kalabagh dam is opposed by three of the four provinces, who argue that it will only benefit Punjab. In September 2003, President Musharraf appealed on television for a national consensus over the proposed dam. After the speech, politicians from Sindh and the NWFP announced they had formed an anti‐Kalabagh Dam Front, which also included opposing the Thal Canal, which is targeted towards a central desert region in Punjab (UN OCHA IRIN, 2003). There is no sign yet of any provincial compromise, as parliamentarians at a water resources seminar in October 2003 remained divided over the issue (Kiani, 2003).

For more information on the Snow and Ice Hydrology Project, contact Naser Faruqui at the IDRC: [email protected]

This is clearly just a broad outline of what needs to be done; the strategic plan upon which to build the specific tactical details.

This figure is an estimated growth rate for 1999–2015.

For more discussion of individuals, organizations or countries that refuse to deal with necessary, profound changes, see Quinn (1996).

Unlike in other South and Southeast Asian countries, rice is not considered a subsistence crop in Pakistan. It is a cash crop grown for export. It is the third major crop, after wheat and cotton, in the contribution to GDP originating from agriculture.

According to the CIA's 2001 World Factbook (CIA, 2001), industry employs 17% of the labour force, services 39% and agriculture 44%.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Naser I. Faruqui

Correspondence address: Naser I. Faruqui, 250 Albert Street, PO Box 8500, Ottawa, Canada K1G 3H9. Email: [email protected]