There isn’t enough water to go around. And things are going to get worse, not just for Pakistan, but also India. The ‘Global Food Policy Report 2022’ states that summer heatwaves are projected to increase at a rate of 0.71 day per decade in the country, while in India it is estimated to triple or quadruple by 2100. The one-size-fits-all medical prescription of ‘stay hydrated’ starts sounding more and more privileged the more one goes away from the urban centres. And for a lot of Pakistani metros, even within them.
There isn’t enough water for the crops. And for urban residents, the water table in cities like Lahore have dropped to an alarming level. And this is Lahore we are talking about, not a city like Karachi, whose water problems have been yielding headlines since decades now.
Electricity can be generated, fuel can be imported, but when it comes to water, it is conservation that is of principal importance. Yes, the other two can also be conserved, wonky circles have long called conservation the fifth fuel. But with water, there is really no way around using our resources well. Whenever, the issue of water conservation comes up, our collective imaginations go to the dams. The problem with dams – apart from their sheer expense, and the time it takes to construct them – is the fact that any number of them will run short if we don’t handle the other end of the equation well. Flood irrigation, an antiquated method that has been around since babylonian times, needs to cede way for drip irrigation projects, with the government spending money on a district-to-district basis. Furthermore, Pakistani farmers pump up a lot of underground water for water-intensive crops like sugarcane and rice, because of which our country is the single largest exporter of underground water in the world. Some crops just need to be done away with. If farmers in the Malakand Division must grow rice, so be it; the rest need to be weaned away from them. We can import both these crops at a much cheaper price.
On the urban front, cities need to work on rainwater harvesting. All major cities need to develop catchment systems; their utility cannot be overstated. And, of course, desist from running the hose off on activities like maintaining personal lawns and washing cars.
There are immediate, medium term and long term measures we need to take. And in all of them, even the long term solutions, time is of the essence. We need to get at it before it’s too late.
