[image: S-M-Hali.jpg]

ISLAMABAD – PAKISTAN is facing acute water shortage and a UNDP report saysthat Pakistani authorities are negligent about an impending water crisisthat is posing a serious threat to the country’s stability. Experts say theSouth Asian country is likely to dry up by 2025 unless necessary steps aretaken to construct more dams and water storage facilities. There are noproper water reservoirs in the country. Pakistan hasn’t built new damssince the 1960s.

What we see is political bickering over the issue. The authorities need toact now. Pakistan can store water for only 30 days, and it is worrisome,Pakistan has the world’s fourth highest rate of water use. Its waterintensity rate – the amount of water, in cubic meters, used per unit of GDP– is the world’s highest. This suggests that no country’s economy is morewater-intensive than Pakistan’s.

According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Pakistan is already thethird most water-stressed country in the world. Its per capita annual wateravailability is 1,017 cubic meters – perilously close to the scarcitythreshold of 1,000 cubic meters. Back in 2009, Pakistan’s wateravailability was about 1,500 cubic meters.

The bulk of Pakistan’s farmland is irrigated through a canal system, butthe IMF says in a report that canal water is vastly underpriced, recoveringonly one-quarter of annual operating and maintenance costs. Meanwhile,agriculture, which consumes almost all annual available surface water, islargely untaxed. Experts say that population growth and urbanization arethe main reasons behind the crisis. The issue has also been exacerbated byclimate change, poor water management, and a lack of political will to dealwith the crisis.

What is even more disturbing is that groundwater supplies—the last resortof water supply—are being rapidly depleted. And worst of all is that theauthorities appear to be oblivious of this doomsday scenario. In 1960Pakistan signed the Indus Water Treaty (IWT) with India for which the WorldBank was the guarantor. Accordingly, India has been building dams, barragesand water storage facilities. Pakistan on the on the hand, has beennegligent and unmindful of water management issues.

Pakistan claims that New Delhi is not fulfilling its responsibilities underthe IWT and voices concerns over India’s construction of new dams. It istrue that India has not adhered to the IWT in letter and spirit but ifPakistan too had been investing in dams and water storage facilities, itswater running down from the Himalayas due to the melting of snow and rainwater from monsoon downpours would not be wasted travelling into the IndianOcean without being utilized.

The scarcity of water is also triggering security conflicts in the country.Experts say the economic impact of the water crisis is immense, and thepeople are fighting for resources. Three out of four Pakistani provincesblame the most populous and politically empowered province, Punjab, forusurping their water sources. The Kalabagh Dam, which would have solved thewater and energy shortage crisis to some extent became politicized and wasnever constructed.

The Diamer-Bhasha Dam, which is a concrete-filled gravity dam, is in thepreliminary stages of construction on the River Indus in Gilgit Baltistanin Pakistan. Its foundation stone was laid by then Prime Minister YusufRaza Gilani on October 18, 2011. Upon completion, Diamer-Bhasha Dam wouldbe the highest roller compacted concrete (RCC) dam in the world. The damsite is situated near a place called “Bhasha” in Gilgit-Baltistan’s DiamerDistrict, hence the name.

Once completed, Diamer-Bhasha Dam would (i) produce 4,500 megawatts ofelectricity through environmentally clean hydropower generation; (ii) storean extra 8,500,000 acre feet (10.5 km3) of water for Pakistan that would beused for irrigation and drinking; (iii) extend the life of Tarbela Damlocated downstream by 35 years; and (iv) control flood damage by the RiverIndus downstream during high floods. The construction faced impedimentsbecause of financing.

The World Bank as well as the Asian Development Bank refused to finance theproject until India provided an NOC to the project. Pakistan tried to placethe Diamer-Bhasha Dam under the umbrella of China Pakistan EconomicCorridor (CPEC) but later dropped its bid as China placed strict conditionsincluding the ownership of the project. On July 04, 2018, the Supreme Courtof Pakistan directed the government to begin construction on the dam, aswell as the Mohmand Dam, to resolve the water shortage.

The Chief Justice of the court gave a donation of 1 million Pakistanirupees for the construction of the two dams. On July 06, the Government ofPakistan set up a fund for the construction of the Diamer Bhasha Dam andthings have been looking up but not for long.

Last week twelve schools were burnt down in the Diamer Bhasha region. Themiscreants have also carried out other terror attacks. The government hasrealized that the enemy would not like to see the completion of the projectas it would help stabilize Pakistan thus the Diamer Bhasha Dam is in thecross hairs of terror mongers.

The local police as well as the Force Command Northern Areas (FCNA) arelooking for the culprits responsible for the heinous act. It is obviousthat anti-terrorist forces need to be involved because the actual target isthe Diamer Bhasha Dam. The enemy is concentrating on damaging the water andenergy sources of Pakistan but we need to block its heinous agenda.

BY: Sultan Mohammad Hali—The writer is retired PAF Group Captain and a TVtalk show host.