Pakistan faces severe shortage of water for drinking and domestic purpose and in all sectors of economy. It is feared that if multifaced measures at all levels were not taken on emergency basis to resolve this problem, Pakistan’s present status “Water Stressed” will change to "Water Starved" country within next 10 years.
Surprisingly Pakistan, which was water surplus country until few decades back has reached present stage of severe water crisis due to following factors.
1. Wasteful methods of irrigation prevalent in Pakistan's agriculture sector causing about 90% of total water consumption in the country
2. Heavily irrigated in sugarcane and rice are common crops of Pakistan instead of dry land farming, using efficient methods of irrigation because most areas of the country lie in arid and semi-arid regions
3. Lack of water storage infrastructure in the country in the form of medium and small sized dams, check dams and watersheds
4. Lack of awareness among masses, policy makers, planners, traders & manufactures about reuse of water after treating waste water in the country
5. Lack of awareness in the country about conservation of water by reuse and using treated waste water in all walks of life and every sector of the economy particularly in agriculture sector
6. Unabated and uncontrolled pollution of fresh water bodies (rivers, lakes, aqufers) and marine water (sea)
7. Unregulated over extraction of ground water in rural and urban areas of the country
8. Nominal or no charges for water consumers in the country
9. Lack of rainwater harvesting in rural and urban areas of the country, where annual precipitation is very high. It will help saving freshwater and increasing ground water recharge for larger benefit of the people. It will also help checking the environmental degradation like desertification and climate change etc.
