The greatest threat to Pakistan's survival is not from terrorism: Report
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The Pakistan Economy Watch on Sunday said water scarcity is emerging as a grave threat to the survival of the country but the policy makers seem to be unconcerned.
Pakistan is facing an acute water shortage and may hit masses, agriculture and industry soon, it said.
In last few years the defence budget has been significantly increased to combat terrorism ignoring the fact that water scarcity could be a bigger menace than terrorism, said President PEW Dr Murtaza Mughal.
In a statement, he said that our country touched the "water stress line" in 1990 and crossed the "water scarcity line" in 2005 but it was not enough to draw attention of the policy makers.
Murtaza Mughal said that if steps were not taken to combat the situation our country is likely to face drought-like situation in the near future.
"It is alarming that our capacity to preserve water has shrunk over the years. We haven't built new dams since the 1960s, and the capacity of existing ones to store water is decreasing," he said.
Pakistan has the world's fourth highest rate of water use while its water intensity rate is in cubic meters, used per unit of GDP is the world's highest. This suggests that no country's economy is more water-intensive than Pakistan.
According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Pakistan is already the third most water-stressed country in the world.
He said that the government should immediate additional funds to overcome water scarcity, try to bring all people on one page for the construction of mega dams and stop India from using water as a weapon against Pakistan.