Clarion call to conserve water

By Ansar Ali
According to a report of World Resource Institute, Pakistan is listed among the top most vulnerable countries to water crisis. It is predicted by hydrologists that an extreme water shortage will hit the country in the near future – by 2025. No doubt Pakistan is a water stressed country but it is not too late if suitable actions are taken by government authorities to preserve water, it will mitigate the crisis in coming years.
As an agrarian economy, 71% of our GDP depends on agriculture and 65% of total workforce is associated with agriculture directly or indirectly. The depletion of water reservoirs in such a quick pace is hindering the agricultural activities and augmenting unemployment. There are many reasons behind the alarming situation but I will discuss about the two reasons which I think are responsible for this. Mismanagement of water resources and negligence of the authorities is posing a serious threat to the stability of the country.
There is no dearth of water resources, our northern mountains have the largest glaciers in the world and we receive a period of heavy rainfall in monsoon season and we have a large number of dams to store ample water. But the mismanagement and incompetence of authorities of water management department, our dams are not able to store water for a longer time period. Most of the dams are designed poorly using even poor building materials which have led to the disastrous situations, due to the overflow of water these dams have burst and flooded the adjacent areas. Despite of the warnings given by national and international experts, our politicians and concerned authorities are trying to politicize the issue. There is a need of time to sit together and discuss the serious issue without any delay otherwise we all will suffer from it. As responsible citizens everyone should contribute his share in the successful completion of two important dams which are initiated by the supreme court of Pakistan i.e. Muhmand dam and Diamer Bhasha Dam which have an immense importance for our future generations.