PCRWR chief stresses for timely steps to ensure water management

APP

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resources, (PCRWR) Chairman Dr Muhammad Ashraf on Sunday said that timely steps are needed to ensure water management in agriculture, domestic and industry sectors through running an awareness campaign, adopting of technology, and imposing restrictions.

“Most of the water utilized in the agriculture sector is wasted due to the outdated agricultural practices which can be saved with the adoption of the latest technology,” Dr Ashraf said in an interview with the state-run news agency.

Regarding the water issue, Dr Ashraf pointed out that the famous PCRWR Water Report mentioning that Pakistan will run dry by 2025 disseminated widely through media in the year 2018 and invoked many hues and cries at that time but proved a blessing in disguise in terms of alarming the concerned authorities to take urgent measures for water conservation.

The Supreme Court of Pakistan took suo moto action after publication of this report in the media and arranged a two-day international conference that reproduced the findings of the same report. The National Water Policy, he informed, was approved in the same year which was a pending document for the last 30 years while significant work on dams was also started at that point.

The conclusion was drawn on the basis of analyzing the first four out of 20 indicators in the world to determine if a country is water-scarce scarce.

The report stated, “If the situation remains the same and the population grows at the same pace, water resources remain constant, then Pakistan will be touching absolute water scarcity by the year 2025”, he said.

Dr. Ashraf pointed out that absolute water scarcity means the availability of water will be reduced from 500 cubic meters per person. He said that the PCRWR played the role of whistleblower and conveyed that if the population will continue to increase at the same pace; the construction of a single dam, which requires at least 10 years, would not cater to the water needs of the population which would be increased substantially by that time.

“When a single person is added to the population, his water requirement exponentially increases in terms of food, transportation, clothing, fiber, etc”, he said. He observed that rapid urbanization and widespread urban sprawl have ‘depleted green cover leaving no place for water which ultimately becomes the source of urban flooding.

Quoting the recent example of flooding in the E-11 sector of Islamabad, he said, “Islamabad is the city where we have potential to protect green cover and such flooding should not have occurred here”.

Emphasizing the need to control population and expand the water resource base by constructing small, medium and large dams, the chairman said that he had also requested the authorities during the previous government that small lakes should have been constructed in each sector of the federal capital. Building a lake at the sector level will enhance its aesthetic beauty and help divert the flooded or stormwater into the lake.

This will also help recharge groundwater, reduce heat wave impact and change the local environment. “Only two things which can reduce the impact of heatwave are vegetative cover and water which can absorb heat”, he said.

Water management in agriculture, domestic groundwater industry sectors must be ensured by the government through running an awareness campaign, use of technology and imposing restrictions.

Referring to the saying of Holy Prophet Hazrat Muhammad (PBUH), “Do not waste water even if performing ablution on the bank of a fast-flowing large river”, he termed behavior change as essential like if someone is at home, mosque or performing any chores like car washing.

Dr Ashraf said that water should be metered with charging proper cost as followed by the other countries to curb its wastage. Water is more important than electricity and gas as it has no alternative and it would be wasted if it has no price. The countries which have a lot of freshwater are charging bills for freshwater even more than electricity and gas in some cases. “To me, water is gold as everything has alternate but water has no alternate so we must protect water the way we protect gold”, he said.

About the contribution of PCRWR in this regard, Dr Ashraf since the role of PCRWR is of a research organization, laboratory or a whistle blower, it has done a lot of research work

PCRWR implemented a project of water conservation in Cholistan by building 110 pounds and analyzed later that those areas with ponds did not face water scarcity issues, he added.

The council has also completed a groundwater mapping project and shared all the data and information with the provinces about the quality and quantity of groundwater as well as the areas from which it can be pumped.

The council also issues a quarterly bottled water monitoring report and identifies techniques of water-saving at domestic, agricultural and industry level, he said.