Pakistan Projects Decline In Water Storage Capacity Of 12% In Next Decade - Daily Times

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ISLAMABAD: The Planning Commission on Wednesday warned that the country’s water storage capacity will go down further by 12 percent in next decade and stressed on increasing storage capacity to meet the challenge.

The country’s current storage capacity stand at 9 percent of average annual flows, which is very low, compared with the world average of 40 percent. On average 35 Million Acre Foot (MAF) water flows into the sea annually during the flood season. Increasing storage capacity is thus of paramount importance.

Deputy Chairman Planning Commission Dr Akram Sheikh expressed these views during his address to the 23rd Annual General Meeting and Conference of the Pakistan Society of Development Economists (PSDE). The theme of this year’s meeting is “Environment and Natural Resources Management: Issues and Challenges”.

Akram said Pakistan had not managed its water resources with care and is right on top of the list of water stressed countries, with water availability falling from 5000 cubic metres per capita in 1951 to 1100 cubic metres in 2006, due to rapid population growth. Inequities in the water distribution are also of critical concern. Worldwide, nearly 70 percent of all available freshwater is used for agriculture, as against 90 percent in Pakistan and it further speeds up the deterioration of freshwater quality through agrochemicals.

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