This essay was written for an essay competition organised by Pakistan council for Research in Water Resources. It explains the current water scenario and prediction about future condition.Water; scarcity; irrigation; water supply; pakistan

Ali, Muhammad

English

Research Papers in Economics

Essay Competition on Water Conservation 
 
Our Water Scenario: Are Heading Towards Disaster? 
 
By: 
Muhammad Ali Shuja 
Student, M.Phil (Economics) 
Applied Economics Research Center 
0332‐3228982 
alionline83@yahoo.com    2 
 
Introduction 
Water is a basic necessity yet more than a billion people in the world do not have access to it. In 
case of Pakistan, 38.5 million people lack access to safe drinking water (Riaz, 2009). According 
to Pakistani Meteorological Department, due to the lowest recorded levels of water in the 
country's dams, Pakistanis are facing shortage of clean drinking water and electricity. Water and 
sanitation related diseases are responsible for 60% of the total number of child mortality cases in 
Pakistan (WHO, 2005).  
The aim of Islamic Republic of Pakistan is to enable its Muslim majority to order their lives in 
the individual and collective spheres in accordance with the teachings and requirements of Islam 
as set out in the Holy Quran and Sunnah. Water is recognized as a vital resource in teachings of 
Islam and everyone has right of fair share of it. The Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) said: 
“Muslims have common share in three (things): grass, water and fire” (Abudaood 3470). 
Furthermore, the Holy Quran warns human beings against unfair distribution of common goods 
and the majority of scholars agree that Islam forbids speculation, manipulation and unbalance 
profit with a common good such as water (Rosemann, 2005). 
Access to Water 
Having access to water in Pakistan does not mean having access to safe and sufficient water 
supply. Pakistan’s water quality ranks as 80th out of 122 nations
1. Pipe water in Pakistan is of 
very low quality. In majority of the areas, pipe water is contaminated due to various reasons. In 
rural areas majority of the people use hand pumps for water extraction. Water from hand pump 
is generally not good for drinking and cooking. Approximately 50 percent of urban water supply 
is insufficient for drinking and personal use, according to PCRWR. 
Access to safe drinking water is restricted to many households in Pakistan. As of 2005, 
approximately 38.5 million people lacked access to safe drinking water source. By the year 
2025, the population of Pakistan is expected to be raised to 228.8 million and 295 million by 
2050
2. With this increase in population, a significant burden will be imposed on water supply as 
on the other hand industry and agriculture sector, major users of water, are also growing. 
Approximately 6 percent of the total annual water resources available to Pakistan are used by the 
domestic and industrial sector (of which 30 to 40 percent gets wasted) and the rest 94 percent is 
used for irrigation purposes (Khan & Javed, 2007).  
Lack of access to safe drinking water would lead to increasing incidence of diarrhea, malaria, 
trachoma, hepatitis A & B, poliomyelitis, schistosomiasis etc, both directly and indirectly. 
Investment in provision of safe water supply will not only supplement economic development 
but also would yield other socio-economic benefits like, improved health status, quality of 
labour force and reduced burden-of-disease. The majority of the population in the country is 
                                                            
1 Water quality indicator values in selected countries http://www.unesco.org/bpi/wwdr/WWDR_chart2_eng.pdf 
2 Economic Survey of Pakistan (2007-08)  
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Figure 2 compares the water resources of 25 most populous countries. We can see from the 
figure that Pakistan is one of the most water-limited nations along with South Africa and Egypt. 
The neighboring countries, India, Iran and China, are marginally ahead with annual per capita 
renewable water resources of only 1600, 1900 and 2100 cubic meters respectively. The per 
capita renewable water resources in major European countries are upto two times greater than 
Pakistan, ranging from 2300 cubic meters for Germany to 3000 cubic meters for France. As 
compared to China, India and major European countries, The United States of America has far 
greater renewable water resources: 9800 cubic meters per person per year. Countries on top of 
the list with largest renewable water resources are Brazil and the Russian Federation with 31900 
and 42500 cubic meters per person per year respectively
4.  
Water is becoming the key development issue for Pakistan and the country is rapidly moving 
from status of water stressed country to a water scarce country, mainly due to its high population 
growth (World Bank; 2006). The groundwater is polluted in most of the areas and most of the 
dams are not it sustainable condition requiring significant efforts on part of Government to 
employ resources in the sector. 
Despite a lowering underground water level, excessive mining is still in practice and the annual 
growth rate of electric tubewells has been indicated to 6.7% and for diesel tubewells to about 
7.4%. In addition to the increasing pollution, saltwater intrusion threatens the country's water 
resources. In Pakistan, about 36% of the groundwater is classified as highly saline. 
Figure 3 depicts the relationship between population and water availability. In 1951, the 
population was 33.7 million and the per capita water availability was 5650 cubic meter. By 
1972, the population almost got double and the per capita water availability decreased to 2800 
cubic. By the year 1992, Pakistan entered into the list water stressed countries and if the current 
trends continue, it could go as lows as 550-cubic meters by 2025 (Riaz, 2009). 
 
Source: Authors Estimation Based on Khan & Javed (2007) 
                                                            
4 (Riaz, 2009) 
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Hydroelectric Power 
Power generation also utilizes water and it is considered an essential element in Pakistan, but 
despite the fact that Pakistan has the potential to generate power much greater than its 
requirement, only about 20% is generated by hydroelectric power plants (Riaz, 2009). The 
power shortage is expected to increase to 6000 by 2010 and 30700 megawatts by the year 2020 
which currently stands at 2,000
5 megawatts. Pakistan’s current power generating capacity is 
20000 MW from all sources and it has the potential to generate as much as 50,000 MW of 
hydroelectric power, more than twice its total current generating capacity. The current capacity 
is not only significantly less than demand but also acts as an obstacle in Pakistan’s way to the 
sustainable economic growth. 
Conclusion 
To summarize the above discussion we can say that Pakistan is indeed heading towards disaster 
if immediate actions are not taken. Clear-cut policies with guaranteed implementation are 
required in order to fulfill the domestic water requirement. It would be unfair to state that 
Government is unaware of the situation. Minister for Environment spoke to media on World 
Water Day 2009 and urged water conservation measures as the country was nearing scarcity 
with per capita availability falling down to 1000 cubic meter annually.  
There is a need to develop new, large and modern water reservoirs to increase the water saving 
capacity. In addition to this, serious conservation steps need to be taken to improve the 
efficiency of water use in Pakistani agriculture which claims almost all of the available fresh 
water resources. Pakistan is still employing old irrigation practices while better and reliable 
technologies and methods are available (Riaz, 2009). 
Comprehensive training programs should be introduced in order to educate farmers and common 
people about the conservation practices. The motivating factor in this regard could be the 
religion as Islam discourages water wastage and Islamic history practically how to conserve 
water and how to avoid wastage and misuse. 
The efforts to improve the current water scenario would have spillover effects on society. 
Through increase in clean water supply, health of the individuals would get better, their 
productivity will increase and economy will grow. On the other hand, clean water would 
increase the total agricultural productivity and crops produced with clean water would be much 
healthier than the existing ones. The healthier crops would mean healthier people and hence 
through labor productivity, economy will prosper.  
 
  
                                                            
5 (Riaz, 2009) 7 
 
References 
Ahmad, E., and A. Sattar (2007) Awareness and the Demand of Safe Drinking Water Practices. Pakistan 
Institute of Development Economics, Islamabad. (Working Paper No. 21.) 
Khan, F. J., & Javed, Y. (2007). Delivering Access to Safe Drinking Water and Adequate Sanitation in 
Pakistan Working Paper Series 2007:30. Retrieved 2009, from http://www.pide.org.pk: 
http://www.pide.org.pk/pdf/Working%20Paper/WorkingPaper-30.pdf 
Khan, F. J., & Javed, Y. (2007). Delivering Access to Safe Drinking Water and Adequate Sanitation in 
Pakistan Working Paper Series 2007:30. Retrieved 2009, from http://www.pide.org.pk. 
PCRWR (2004), The Water Quality Report (2004) of the Pakistan Council for Research on Water 
Resources 
Riaz, H. (2009, March 21). World Water Day: Water Scarce Pakistan. Retrieved April 2009, from Haq's 
Musings: http://www.riazhaq.com/2009/03/water-scarce-pakistan.html 
Rosemann, N. (2005). Drinking Water Crisis in Pakistan and the Issue of Bottled Water The Case of 
Nestlé’s ‘Pure Life’. Swiss Coalition of Development Organisations. 
United Nation Development Programme (UNDP) and World Bank Water and Sanitation Programme 
(1998) National Seminar on Urban Environmental Sanitation. Seminar Report. 
United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) (2004) State of the World’s Children Report. 
World Bank (2005) Scaling-up Rural Sanitation in South Asia. Islamabad, Pakistan. 
World Bank, 2006. Better Management of Indus Basin Waters ; Strategic Issues and Challenges, The 
World Bank, Washington, D.C. 
World Health Organisation (2004) Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Links to Health, Fact and Figures. 
World Health Organisation (2005) Sanitation and Hygiene Promotion: Programming Guideline. 
http://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/hygiene/sanhygpromotoc.pdf 

Awareness and the Demand of Safe Drinking Water Practices. Pakistan Institute of Development Economics,

Better Management of Indus Basin Waters ; Strategic Issues and Challenges, The World Bank,

Children Fund (UNICEF)

Development Programme (UNDP) and World Bank Water and Sanitation Programme

Scaling-up Rural Sanitation in South Asia.

The Water Quality Report (2004) of the Pakistan Council for Research on Water Resources Riaz,

World Health Organisation

Our Water Scenario: Are We Heading Towards Disaster?

Our Water Scenario: Are We Heading Towards Disaster?

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