Pakistan Water Gateway

Low irrigation efficiency can push Pakistan into food insecurity, scientists warned at a seminar at the University of Agriculture (UAF) on Friday.

Addressing a training programme on improving irrigation techniques, UAF Vice Chancellor Professor Dr Iqrar Ahmad Khan said that people need to be taught the latest water management techniques and must phase out traditional irrigation methods. He said that only a high efficiency irrigation system could steady the country’s water crisis.

Government agencies are still unsure what caused the contamination of the Keenjhar Lake, which killed thousands of fish and other forms of marine life, while the water utility claimed that water being supplied to the city from the lake was safe for human consumption.

A majority of the existing Hindu temples in Pakistan are in a dilapidated condition due to indifference of the successive governments in Islamabad but another disturbing development has alarmed the country's marginalised Hindu community. The sacred pond at Katas Raj temple located on a hill in the Choha Saidan Shah area in the Chakwal district of Pakistan Punjab is drying up at a rapid pace due to the large supply of its water to the nearby towns through tube wells.

The whole nation will agree with the fact that President Asif Zardari has stated that water could cause a future war, and further that because of this, he raised the subject with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. He said this while talking to journalists’ delegation on Sunday at the Prime Minister’s House in Multan. His saying that Dr Singh said India had no objection if Pakistan went to the international tribunal established by the Indus Basin Waters Treaty showed Dr Singh knew how lackadaisical an approach Pakistan was taking there.

Around 80 percent water supply schemes in Rawalpindi are providing contaminated water, thus leaving the people at the risk of serious diseases like hepatitis, jaundice and diarrhoea.

The outcome of the technical assessment survey of water supply schemes, conducted in the domains of seven tehsils of Rawalpindi district, has revealed that water supply schemes are providing piped water for drinking purposes, to meet household needs and for other multiple uses to an enumerated population of 1.4 million people on 385 surveyed water schemes.

The contamination of our water bodies and waterways is becoming a source of increasing concern, especially in a situation where the scarcity of drinking water is rising fast and Pakistan, according to international organisations, faces the risk of becoming a water-deficient country. The latest horror story to emerge is about Keenjhar Lake in Sindh which provides most of the water supplied to Karachi.

India's Wular Lake, a popular picnic and tourist spot nestled in the Kashmir Valley, is an unlikely site for conflict. But India's plan to build a structure on the Jhelum River at the mouth of the lake that will allow it to release water during the river's lean winter months has outraged neighboring Pakistan, which believes the project will give India the power to control how much water flows downstream to its farmers.

Pakistan is among the countries in the world that is suffering from acute water shortage, as ground-water resources along with per capita consumption of water are depleting fast.

slamabad—Survey conducted by Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resources (PCRWR) has revealed out of as many as 24 Water Supply Schemes (WSSs) in district Bhakkar,98 % are supplying contaminated water which contains micro-organisms, arsenic, iron and fluoride. Only 2% WSSs in Bhakkar are supplying water safe whereas, rest of the schemes are supplying water unsafe for human consumption. Mostly untreated water is being supplied to the consumers, which is causing many waterborne diseases among adults as well as kids.

The Indus Water Treaty has now become ineffective as India is continuously violating all clauses of the treaty and Pakistan is not challenging them at any international forum by tacit approbation. International Water Expert Engr Bashir Malik, who has served United Nations and World Bank as chief technical adviser on Thursday said the cheapest and environment-friendly solution to water and energy crisis in Pakistan was the Kalabagh Dam, which could only be built by a patriotic and brave leader having the courage to break all the barriers in the best national interest.