Pakistan’s Groundwater Lifeline Is Running Dry, PIDE Warns

News Desk 

Islamabad: Pakistan’s groundwater lifeline is fast running dry — and the Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE) has sounded the alarm. 

In a new policy roadmap unveiled at a seminar co-hosted with the Planning Commission’s RASTA initiative, experts warned that Pakistan is edging toward an irreversible groundwater crisis that could cripple agriculture, cities, and public health.

The seminar, “Pakistan’s Groundwater Crisis: Policy Lessons and a Framework for Sustainable Resource Use,” featured RASTA’s Social Scientist Nazam Maqbool as keynote speaker and was moderated by Dr. Muhammad Faisal Ali, Research Fellow at PIDE.

Dr. Faisal opened by noting Pakistan’s stark fall from a water-abundant to a water-scarce country — with per capita water availability plummeting from over 5,000 cubic meters in 1947 to less than 1,000 today. “Groundwater is Pakistan’s invisible backbone — but we are draining it faster than nature can replenish,” he warned.

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Nazam Maqbool painted a sobering picture: Pakistan ranks among the world’s top four groundwater users, extracting about 65 cubic kilometers annually against a recharge of only 55 cubic kilometers. Major cities such as Lahore are losing up to three feet of groundwater every year, while more than 60 million citizens are exposed to arsenic-contaminated water.

He identified weak governance, overlapping institutional mandates, and heavy electricity subsidies as major drivers of over-extraction. “We’ve made it cheaper to waste water than to conserve it,” he said, noting that Punjab’s average tariff of US$0.12 per cubic meter is far below the global average of US$2.36.

To reverse the decline, Maqbool proposed a seven-pillar reform plan, including the creation of a National Groundwater Council, provincial licensing and metering systems, aquifer mapping, and real-time monitoring. He also called for a shift away from water-intensive crops like sugarcane and rice toward pulses and oilseeds, and greater adoption of efficient irrigation methods such as drip and sprinkler systems.

Drawing on global lessons, Maqbool cited Israel, which now reuses 90 percent of its treated wastewater, and several US cities that have halved urban water use through strict conservation measures.

Dr. Faisal concluded that Pakistan’s groundwater crisis is “not just an environmental threat — it’s a national security risk.” He stressed that the solution lies in governance reform, technology adoption, and a shift in societal behavior toward valuing water as a finite resource.