The Pakistan Economy Watch (PEW) on Friday said water resources are depleting at a rapid pace which is not only a great threat to the food security and industry but it can trigger cross-border conflict between two nuclear countries.
Apart from water scarcity Pakistan is facing a serious problem of population explosion, destroying almost all sorts of economic planning while no government has taken this issue seriously, it said.
A growing population and poor planning have together led to the depletion of the country’s resources, said Brig (Retd) Aslam Khan, Chairman PEW.
He said that the per capita availability of water in the country has decreased in the last seven decades to 935 cubic metres from 5,260 cubic metres which is a very alarming level.
Aslam Khan said that if the government fails to formulate an effective conservation strategy now, the per capita availability would decrease to 860 cubic metres by 2025 and even down to 500 cubic metres by 2040.
He noted that climate change is also causing extreme rainfall in some areas where there is almost no capacity of water storage in the country.
