Pakistan may be 'water-deficit country' by 2006

'World Water Day' is being celebrated here like other parts of the World on March 22, with a pledge that all out efforts will continue to be made for provision of safe drinking water to the people, maintaining the clean environment and increasing development in human societies. According to the World Meteorological Organisation, weather and climate-related extreme events, such as tornadoes, thunderstorms, storms, cyclones, floods and drought, account for nearly 75 percent of all disasters.
They lead to an enormous toll of human suffering, loss of life and economic damage.
"Disease outbreak can be a disaster for most of the families and localities, eg a local cholera outbreak can be a disaster for families living in a slum or a village. The diarrhea "epidemic" in the developing world is another disaster basically because of unsafe water and lack of hygiene.
These diseases also damage the sustainability of water and sanitation systems by reducing the ability of water users, to spend time and energy on management activities; so risking the possibility that their specific needs may not be taken into account; and by reducing work-efficient force due to illness of self or a member of the family", said medical experts while talking to Business Recorder here on Friday.
According to a study, an estimated 975.771 million gallons of water goes waste annually in Pakistan, a country perpetually exposed to varied degrees of water crisis each year in the backdrop of long summer spells and fast depleting water resources.
The scenario, according to global data, is leading to a situation where Pakistan may be officially declared a 'water deficit country' by 2006. This is ironically in a situation where the very 975.771 million gallons, or 4.43 billion cubic meters (bcm) of waste water is sufficient enough to help generate five billion kilowatts of electricity.
To mark the day, seminars, workshops and other programmes have been planned in which speakers will highlight the significance of the day and also adopt necessary recommendations for preservation of water.
It may be mentioned that of the total 4.43 bcm wastewater produced in Pakistan, 3.060 bcm (674,009 million gallons) came from municipal and 1.370 bcm (301,752 million gallons) from industrial use.
An estimated 1.1 billion people lack access to safe drinking water and 2.4 billion people are without basic sanitation.
The United Nations estimate that in order to meet the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) for water, 270,000 new connections will have to be made each day, and more than twice as many to meet the goal for sanitation.