Islamabad: In a landmark step to conserve the country’s scarce water resources, Pakistan has approved its first-ever water policy.
The federal and provincial governments unanimously agreed on a National Water Policy (NWP) and inked the document the ‘Pakistan Water Charter’ on Tuesday during the 37th meeting of the Council of Common Interests (CCI) that was held at the Prime Minister’s Office.
With Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi chairing the council, the chief ministers of all four provinces — Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Pervez Khattak, and Balochistan Chief Minister Abdul Quddus Bizenjo — signed the water charter.
The charter seeks to plan, develop, monitor, coordinate and manage Pakistan’s water resources.
A new groundwater authority will be established in each province to ensure transparency and sustainability, according to the policy.
An information technology-based monitoring system will also be installed at all diversion points from the rivers and reservoirs for access to real-time data.
The policy suggests increasing the development budget for water resources from 3.7 per cent to 10 per cent by 2019, and eventually to 20 per cent by 2030, as well as pricing water at the delivery point, with the supply set to be free of cost.
Minister for Water Resources Syed Javed Ali Shah and Sartaj Aziz, the deputy chairman of the Planning Commission of Pakistan, briefed the chief ministers of the four provinces and senior officials on the draft of the policy. Aziz said the policy has been prepared after consultations with all major stakeholders and a national level seminar was also held to reach a consensus.
The implementation of the NWP will be the responsibility of a body called the ‘National Water Council’, that will be chaired by the prime minister and will be comprised of the federal ministers for water resources, finance, power, and planning development and reforms. Al provincial chief ministers will also be members.
After deliberations, the CCI directed the Ministry of Inter-Provincial Coordination, the Planning Commission of Pakistan and the Ministry of Water Resources to reconcile the claims in consultation with the provinces and resubmit the issue for a decision in the next CCI meeting.
The CCI was informed that the national water policy includes strategic initiatives and is in line with the National Climate Change Policy 2012.
The approval of the water policy is a much-needed policy framework to mitigate the negative impact of climate changes and rapidly depleting water resources as the Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resources (PCRWR) has warned that “If the government does not take action, the country will run out of water by 2025.”
Pakistan is already one the most water-stressed country in the world, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The country’s largest province, Balochistan, is facing a severe drought and famine, with a catastrophic situation in the provincial capital, Quetta, where there is a shortage of 20 million gallons of water daily, according to the Quetta Water and Sanitation Authority.
Sindh and Punjab provinces, home to more than half of the country’s population, are also facing serious water shortage. The megacity of Karachi, with a population of nearly 20 million, is struggling to get water as the “water tanker mafia” slowly replaces the government as a major supplier while selling the precious liquid at exorbitantly high prices.
The chronic water shortage in big cities like Lahore, Karachi and Islamabad highlights poor governance and mismanagement. A 2017 report by Indus River System Authority revealed gross mismanagement, adding that “Pakistan dumps water worth approximately $21 billion [Dh77.13 billion] into the sea each year due to [the] lack of water conservation system.”
