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The imminent water crisis

Business Recorder (BR) Research

Water shortage is a perennial problem for the residents of Karachi. Although the crisis has worsened in recent weeks, leaving Karachiites at the mercy of water tanker mafia, the city’s water supply is woefully inadequate at the best of times.

The response from Sindh Government has been predictable and token as no significant funding has been earmarked for improving the capacity and efficiency of the city’s water supply infrastructure. The provincial government has announced a free water supply service for worst affected areas but is clueless when it comes to resurrecting the fiscally constrained and corruption infested Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (KWSB).

The current crisis in Karachi has been blamed on the debilitated infrastructure of KWSB coupled with electricity supply lapse to the pumping station. The issue has been worsened by the plethora of illegal water hydrants operating within the city. The government response has comprised of a crackdown against some illegal hydrants and the formation of a committee to monitor the supply of free water tankers to worst affected areas.

But the water shortage is not a Karachi-only phenomenon. It is a national crisis; one that threatens to be far more debilitating for the national economy than the power crisis; and it is imminent.

According to a report published by the Planning Commission, the country’s per capita water resources have dropped to 1200 cubic meters per person per year. The 2012 report warned that this tally would further shrink to under 1000 cubic meters per person per year, turning Pakistan into a “water stressed country”. The impact of this shortage cannot be overstressed for this agri-based economy where 90 percent of the agricultural output is derived from irrigated lands.

As it stands today, water tables in the country are declining, thus pushing up the cost of pumping water to the surface. Meanwhile political constraints are blocking the development of large water reservoirs in the country.

Despite the increasingly troublesome shortage of this life-giving resource, federal and provincial governments remain loathe to water reforms, particularly when it comes to pricing water supply to the agriculture sector.

A PIDE report titled “Pricing Irrigation Water in Pakistan” acknowledged that the acreage-based pricing system prevalent in the country is highly inefficient and not popular in other countries. However that report concluded that water supplies must be improved before redressing water pricing. Obviously improving the water delivery infrastructure entails hefty expenditure which the provincial governments can ill afford.

Water supply, its supporting infrastructure, the associated pricing mechanism as well as its implementation are all provincial subjects. A recent proposal tabled to Sindh government suggests that collection of abayana should be made through commercial banks instead of patwaris and middle men.

The energy crisis has taught Pakistanis an inconvenient truth; that people only value a resource by the amount of money they have to dish out to use it. Hence it is evident that the water crisis also requires water pricing that is indicative of its cost of storage and transmission. The development of large storage reservoirs is a necessity and so is the equitable distribution of the costs entailed. The federal and provincial governments may choose to improve water availability first or tackle the pricing issue foremost; that is a decision likely to be driven by political expediency. But the fact that water sector reforms are a dire need cannot be ignored and failing to mobilize on this front risks dire consequences for the nation.

This aticle was originally published on May 29, 2015 in the Business Recorder (BR) research.

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