ZAHEER ABBASI

ISLAMABAD: Water scarcity is the biggest challenge for Pakistan and is increasing in relative terms with population which requires better water management and smarter water use, said Dr William Young, lead water resources management specialist of the World Bank.

While giving a presentation here on Thursday on Lead Pakistan’s perspective ‘Water Scarcity Myth of Pakistan,’ he said that five myths dominate the discourse – biggest problem is scarcity, Pakistan has insufficient storage capacity, the glacier will soon be gone, irrigation efficiency is very low and water to the sea is wasted.

Dr Young said that Pakistan will always be water scare considering increasing population “but being water scare does not mean you can not be water secure.” He said that water scarcity is a challenge “but more important is how we use and manage water and is it being used most productively in the economy.” He added that storage is about managing variability.

He said that irrigation efficiency often only considers losses and not entire system, including internal recovery. Young further stated that a World Bank-funded study will be conducted on water resources of Pakistan this fiscal year, July 2017-January 2018, and international water management institute team will be contracted to assist one of the two national consultation workshops.

He said that his objective today was to be provocative in order to encourage everyone to engage in a robust debate on the important issues of water security and encourage people to challenge accepted truths if not supported by robust evidence and analysis.

Former Senator Nisar Memon said a consensus was developed in then parliamentary committee on water resources in 2005 for construction of Diamar-Bhasha Dam; however, the funding of the project was an issue as the World Bank was not ready to fund any project in the disputed territory. He appreciated the government’s decision to fund the project from its own resources. He said that water scarcity is a problem of Pakistan and it needs to take concerned steps to address the problem. He said that increase in population and water scarcity is no longer a myth but a reality and Pakistan will have to bridge the water demand and supply gap.

He said the parliamentary committee on water resources in 2005 suggested recommendations with respect to increasing water storage capacity by constructing large and small dams. He said that funds were provided for construction of small dams in Balochistan.

The gist of the discussion was that scarcity of water is a great challenge due to demographic change and seasonal variability and better management is required to deal with the problem while for storage focus has been on construction of large dams and small dams were ignored. The irrigation system is not improved and consequently the water is being lost.