The reliance on a single river basin, one of the most
inefficient agricultural systems in world, climate change and a lack of a
coherent water policy means that as Pakistan's population expands, its ability
to feed it is shrinking.
“Pakistan faces a raging water crisis,” said Michael
Kugelman, program associate for South and Southeast Asia Program at the Woodrow
Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington.
“It has some of the lowest per capita water availability in
Asia, and in the world as a whole.” The vast majority — between 90 and 95
percent — of Pakistan's water is used for agriculture, the US undersecretary
for democracy and global affairs, Maria Otero, told Reuters. The average use in
developing countries is between 70 and 75 percent.
The remaining trickle is used for drinking water and
sanitation for Pakistan's 180 million people.
According to Kugelman, more than 55 million Pakistanis lack
access to clean water and 30,000 die each year just in in Karachi, Pakistan's
largest city, from unsafe water.
“Of the available water today, 40 percent of it gets used,”
Otero said. “The rest is wasted through seepage and other means.” Otero was in
Islamabad as part of the first meeting of the US-Pakistan Strategic Dialogue
Water Working Group.
Pakistan's Indus river basin is supplied by melting snow and
glaciers from the Himalayas. A recent report in the journal Science by Walter
W. Immerzeel of Utrecht University in the Netherlands said the Indus could lose
large amounts of its flow because of climate change.
Both India and Pakistan make use of the Indus, with the
river managed under a 1960 water treaty. Pakistan has lately begun accusing
India of taking more than its fair share from the headwaters by building a
number of dams and waging water war against its downstream neighbor. India
denies this.
If the current rate of climate change continues and Pakistan
continues to rely on the inefficient flood system of irrigation, by 2050, it
will be able to feed between 23-29 million fewer people than it can today with
approximately double its current population.
The United States hopes to encourage Pakistan to modernize
its agricultural system and plant less water-thirsty crops. Otero said Pakistan
and the United States are also exploring ways to improve the storage of water
and Pakistan must look at ways to charge more for water as a way of encouraging
conservation.
Such measures would likely be unpopular in the desperately
poor nation. Measures to reduce subsidies on electricity, as mandated by the
International Monetary Fund, amid chronic power shortages have battered the
already unsteady civilian government.
Pakistan needs to either pass land reform or a series of
laws to govern proper water allocation, Kugelman said.
“If nothing is done, the water crisis will continue, no
matter how many canals are repaired or dams constructed,” he said.
