RECORDER REPORT

LAHORE: A report prepared by the water sector experts has urged the government to strengthen the Pakistan Commission on Indus Waters (PCIW) and rehabilitation of WAPDA as economic engine of the country.

The report has further pointed out that Pakistan must not allow over 30 Million Acre Feet annually to flow into the sea, as it causes a staggering loss of over $60 billion.

Furthermore, it has also urged the entrepreneurs to tap the opportunities in the area of hydropower and wastewater recycling.

"Environmental degradation is leading to severe ecological damage. The population located in south of the Potohar is already in the midst of a health epidemic manifesting itself through hepatitis and very high rate of cancers," the report warned.

The report said Pakistan has been flying blind in the water sector since several decades. In the 20th century the world built 800,000 dams (all sizes) of which 45,000 are +15m.

Water is out main endowment but there is no continuity in policy directions or even an attempt to have a comprehensive appreciation of the past and future water scenarios.

With help from the World Bank and USA, we created a great vehicle in 1958 to harness the potential of the Indus river basin.

It further said WAPDA was modeled on America's successful Tenessee Valley Authority, a seven states initiative of 1933 that brought USA out of the Great 1929 Recession. In 1969, WAPDA's annual budget was nearly 50 percent higher than the federal budget of the united Pakistan.

One expert said in spite of the plunder of our ground water resource we cannot have enough irrigation water to maximize the irrigated agriculture output today. "The dream of going beyond the 42 million acres of irrigated croplands remains a mirage. At least 21 million acres are available but remain uncultivated since 1947 due to lack of irrigation water," he added.

He further questioned the need for excessive over-exploitation of the ancient and priceless sweet water aquifers during the last 45 years, saying that it must be understood that surface hydro flows and storages are the basic source of ground water recharge.

The experts have pointed out that ever deeper pumping of ground water has resulted in arsenic and heavy metal contamination of the aquifers, far exceeding WHO recommendations.

They added that untreated discharge of raw sewage, as well as industrial and agriculture effluents into surface channels and ground water aquifers have in many cases caused an irreversible deterioration quality of water.