Water Shortage In Pakistan

Water is the most important element necessary for human beings, animals, insects, plants even for whole planet. Sources of water available in Pakistan are rainfall, surface water available in rivers and underground water available below the earth surface. After the Indus Water Treat, water of only two Rivers i.e. Jhelum and Chenab are available for Pakistan while the availability of water in remaining three Rivers i.e. Ravi, Sutlej and Bias will be under India’s control. After the construction of dams and barrages by India on River Chenab and Jhelum the Indus Basin Treaty was violated, hence created problems of water shortage for Pakistan which is still becoming more and more severe with the passage of time.

According to the UNO report, Pakistan is at 7th position in the list of countries which are facing water crisis. Presently, Pakistan has surface water of 153 MAF and underground water resources of only 24 MAF and may face water shortage of 33 MAF during the year 2025

The population of Pakistan is increasing at a rate of 3.2%. Currently, we have to feed more than 200 million people and if population rate remains the same then it will be almost double by the year 2025 and hence, the consumption of the underground water will also add to the problem which will further be aggravated by the factors of global warming and the climatic changes.

The problem of water shortage in Pakistan has gained the momentum as our water capacity is only for 30 days and Pakistan has the 4th highest rate of water use in the world. It simply means that water intensity rate – the amount of water in cubic meters used per unit of GDP is the world highest and no country economy is more water intensive then Pakistan.