Women’s economic inclusiveness: unless we do this, nothing will change
Poor urban water quality and lack of sanitation facilities have become severe challenges facing Pakistan
As one of the ten hotspots of climate change, Pakistan, with a population of 225 million, is on the verge of severe water shortage. This increasingly serious water crisis has wide-ranging effects and may worsen relations with India and intensify hostility among provinces due to lingering water-sharing disputes. Water shortage may not only intensify political discord, but also have multiple adverse effects on the lives of ordinary citizens.
Water shortages are exacerbating the plight of poor farmers and making the lives of marginal families in urban areas more difficult. Lack of safe drinking water can cause illness and force people with tight budgets to pay water bills to meet daily household needs. Women and girls who shoulder the burden of fetching water for their families are the first to be affected by this crisis.
The South Asia Center of the Atlantic Council and Frederick S. Pardee of Boston University, the Center for Research on the Longer Future, believe that poor urban water quality and lack of sanitation are urgent challenges facing Pakistan. The long-neglected sewage infrastructure in most Pakistani cities is causing pollution of drinking water supplies. Contaminated drinking water directly affects children’s health outcomes, including an alarming rate of stunting. In total, 100,000 people die directly from water-borne diseases in the country each year. However, since people who do not have enough money to buy bottled water drink contaminated drinking water directly, few people emphasize the health costs of poor water and sanitation services. The use of toxic wastewater in agriculture is also mostly neglected.
Given its existing water resources, Pakistan has done a terrible job in managing water demand. Pakistan’s water sector has received a large number of loans and grants from international organizations such as the World Bank, the United States Agency for International Development, and the Asian Development Bank to improve water governance and develop water resources. However, water management is not only poorly managed, but also very unfair. In addition to the need to invest in urban water supply and sanitation infrastructure and extend these systems to emerging slum areas, agricultural water use needs to be reconsidered because it consumes most of the available fresh water in the country.
The uniformly charged irrigation water fee is not enough to maintain operating and maintenance costs. The use of groundwater supplies is mostly unregulated. Anyone who has enough money to buy powerful pumps and electricity or diesel to run them can pump groundwater unscrupulously. The use of floodwaters to irrigate and produce inappropriate and water-demanding crops such as sugar cane may be the pockets of local elites, but these unsustainable practices are exacerbating water shortages and food insecurity. The scarce supply of fresh water can no longer be regarded as an infinite commodity that can be monopolized and developed by people with influence and resources.
The government's plan to replenish the country's aquifers seems to be a good idea. But now is the time to let the obsession with other top-down engineering-led solutions for building dams and reservoirs give way to more conservation-conscious and fairer water solutions. The growing enthusiasm for precision agriculture technologies (such as the use of humidity and electrochemical sensors or drip irrigation) is expensive, and most wealthy farmers or agribusinesses can adopt such technologies without government support.
It is not enough to propose a noble water policy. The country’s water governance must be reimagined to give priority to the people’s water security. Considering the displacement and environmental damage they will cause, poorly conceived elite projects like the Ravi Riverfront City project must be put on hold. On the contrary, efforts must be made to invest in improving and expanding drinking water infrastructure to meet the irrigation needs of small farmers, mainly to improve food security, rather than trying to promote the export of cash crops.
Published in "Quick Tribune", November 5, 2021.
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