Underground water table: Senate body assails PCRWR for presenting flawed data

ISLAMABAD: Senate Standing Committee on Monday expressed annoyance at Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resources (PCRWR) for presentation of flawed data of underground water table in the country.

The committee headed by Senator Shahadat Awan had convened the meeting to discuss ground water depletion in Pakistan and the schemes initiated to address this issue and budgetary allocation to the Ministry for the year 2023-2024 and 2024-25 with head-wise breakup.

Offering comments on the current pace of depletion of underground water in the country, chairman Standing Committee stated that Pakistan is the third largest country in the world extracting underground water. He also added that we as a nation extract 9 percent of the total groundwater of the world, consequently making the ratio of recharge of ground water much less than extraction. On the other hand, one third of natural water of Pakistan is wasted in the sea.

The briefing from the ministry began with the presentation by Dr Hifza Rasheed, the Director General Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resources on groundwater depletion in Pakistan and the related initiatives aimed at mitigating this issue.

Beginning with the province of Punjab, she briefed that the depth of the water table ranges from 5 to 140 feet. However, the Secretary of the Ministry of Water Resources, Syed Ali Murtaza interrupted and challenged the figures presented by the DG PCRWR prompting the Chairman Awan to express his astonishment and annoyance. Chairman of the committee questioned how the committee could proceed with inaccurate data if the ministry itself acknowledged discrepancies therein. The chairman committee emphasized that even the data concerning the capital city was flawed, while raising concerns about the accuracy of information for Punjab and Sindh provinces. The secretary of the Ministry of Water Resources attributed the inaccuracies to malfunctioning of piezometers and misreporting by WASA.

Senator Muhammad Humayun Mohmand enquired about the responsibility of the installation and maintenance of piezometers to which it was clarified that this duty falls under the ambit of Irrigation Departments of concerned provinces.

Secretary Ministry of Water Resources further stated that the accurate data could not be provided until sufficient piezometers are placed/installed.

Commenting on the viewpoint of secretary Resources, the chairman Standing Committee pointed out that the briefing had already included data from reliable sources such as the PCRWR, Punjab Irrigation Department, and Pakistan Bureau of Statistics.

The chairman committee accused Ministry of Water Resources before the committee of presenting inaccurate data.

As the committee noted serious flaws in the data shared by the Ministry’s Organization, PCRWR, the meeting was adjourned with a directive to the Ministry to conduct an internal review with all relevant departments responsible for data collection on this critical issue before re-presentation of the same before the Committee in its next meeting. The meeting was attended by senator Mohammad Humayun Mohmand, Senator Poonjo Bheel and other senior officials of concerned departments.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2024