ISLAMABAD: British High Commission FCDO Director of Development, Jo Moir, said FCDO has embarked on a journey to understand Pakistan’s water and national security challenges and find solutions to address them.
She added that the program is relatively new and FCDO is working to understand the situation in Pakistan, which is one of the most water-stressed countries in the world.
“We are trying to explore the gaps and sources of knowledge to fix the problem as the water crisis in Pakistan has become an urgent issue and the population of the country is over 240 million and five million people are added every year. Jo More said that 70% of the total population does not have access to clean water, while exports and industrial growth are supposed to be supported by water.
Tabadlab hosted the 63rd dialogue in a series of roundtables titled “Water Conflict: Trends and Trajectories for 2024 and Beyond”, which showcased an overview of numerous studies conducted on water issues that served as evidence of the country’s growing water scarcity and ways how to overcome those challenges.
Director, Center for Regional and Global Connectivity, Tabadlab, Zeeshan Salahuddin while moderating the round table informed that the Center has identified about 26 studies on water related issues and conducted exploratory interviews to ascertain facts for detailed discussion.
The issue of water conflicts was divided into three different categories: transnational, interprovincial and local, he added.
The first transnational study on the Kabul River was presented by Memoona Mohsin, Policy Analyst, Tabadlab. She noted that despite the fact that the Kabul River is shared by Pakistan and Afghanistan, there is a lack of a comprehensive water-sharing treaty.
Moreover, of the nine rivers that flow through the border, none has a formal agreement and treatment between the two countries, she added.
She noted that the lack of any treaty could trigger any water conflict in the future. On Interprovincial: Kala Bagh Dam Haleema Abbasi said environmental concerns related to the Kala Bagh Dam are irreversible for the Indus River ecosystems with a host of climate change impacts that would create provincial tensions such as arbitrary water allocation by Punjab, mistrust in Govt. and insufficient advocacy efforts.
She added that there is a need to clearly define the National Water Act and update the National Water Policy and Water Charter 2018.
In the local study of Ghazi Barotha by Maheen, he said that this is the only project where the local communities affected by this river flow project were successfully managed and the key element was Ghazi Barotha Tarqiati Idara, which was a dedicated project NGO that developed a focus on benefit sharing and advocated among the communities on the project.
In the second part, during a panel discussion, climate change and communication consultant, Afia Salam said that Pakistan’s geographical locations have positioned it towards solutions and a way forward despite its disaster-prone terrain and vulnerability to climate change.
She said amid the country’s rapid pace of urbanization, there is a need to shift water resources to provinces with more migration to urban areas.
“Population is not discussed in many contexts, and the social fabric breaks down because of it, because everything revolves around population, how its increase will lead to the deterioration of other ecosystems,” she added.
Water Resources Specialist, World Bank, Basharat Saeed said disputes and disagreements over water that led to protracted conflicts were archaic, while agreement, terms of engagement, use of the vernacular, respect for data and results were essential for the implementation of decisive policies.
“We need to reach a consensus on the causes of our water crisis and have a common definition of the crisis. Countries like Singapore, Israel and all the Gulf states are water-scarce, but there is water security for the people in all these states, which is not enjoyed by any in Pakistan, despite having much more water resources than all others,” he said. He suggested building a national consensus on water scarcity or other issues, robust data with easy access and credibility.
Fazilda Nabeel, Climate Change and Water Resources Management Specialist, FAO, said the architecture to address these issues was in place, but implementing the policy frameworks was a daunting task.
She mentioned that water laws were legislated by the provinces but not properly implemented, while no effective implementation of the 2018 water policy and the Senate Water Authority further exacerbated the poor implementation of the laws.
Director to Chairman, WAPDA, Husnain Afzal said war was not an option in prevailing times but resorting to water diplomacy was necessary to resolve the crisis.
He added that there was a great need to sensitize projects like Kala Bagh Dam along with building national character to use water judiciously as water security was all about availability, availability and quality of water.
The vote of thanks was delivered by Iftikhar Ahmed, First Secretary of the British High Commission.
Reporter Sohail Majeed Butt
