LAHORE: Warning that acute water insecurity now directly threatens national survival, stakeholders from across country have urged the federal and provincial governments to treat the water sector as a strategic priority by allocating at least 20 percent of total development spending under the federal PSDP and provincial ADPs in the upcoming FY 2026-27 budgets.
Stakeholders including Mohsin Leghari, who hails from DG Khan, Hassan Ali Chanihu, Sanghar (Sindh), Farooq Bajwa, Sialkot, North Punjab, Muhammad Ehsan, Lachi, Kohat, South KPK, Zeeshanul Rab Karachi, Agha Nasir, Quetta, Ayub Mayo, Lahore and Mubashar Choudhry, Layyah issued a joint statement on Monday arguing that continued under-investment in water infrastructure poses an immediate threat to the nation’s food security, energy stability, public health, and long-term economic sustainability.
This urgent demand is driven by intensifying climate stress, declining storage capacity, and rising upstream trans-boundary uncertainties that are placing unprecedented pressure on the national water system.
The stakeholders, including experts, public representative and farmers, highlighted a troubling low funding for water sector, noting that the FY 2025-26 federal PSDP allocated only Rs 133.4 billion to the water resources division, which represents a mere 13 percent of the total Rs 01 trillion development envelope and a stark 27 percent decline from the Rs 184.6 billion allocated the previous year. To fix this dangerous fiscal mismatch, they urged the government to raise federal water-sector allocations to at least Rs 200 billion for FY 2026-27, alongside similar increases in provincial ADPs by the provincial govts.
The critical nature of this crisis is corroborated by official regulatory bodies, with the State Bank of Pakistan previously reporting that the country’s major reservoirs, Tarbela, Mangla, and Chashma, store water equivalent to barely 30 days of national requirements against an international benchmark of 120 days, while the Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resources (PCRWR) has warned that Pakistan has crossed into absolute water scarcity. To remedy this dangerously low carry-over storage capacity, stakeholders emphasized that the timely completion of eight ongoing strategic projects, including the Diamer-Bhasha Dam, Mohmand Dam, Dasu Hydropower Project, Tarbela Fifth Extension, Kurram Tangi Dam, Nai Gaj Dam, Kachhi Canal, and the K-IV Water Supply Project, is absolutely mandatory. They noted that the Diamer-Bhasha Dam alone would add 8.1 MAF of gross storage and generate 4,500 MW of low-cost hydel electricity, warning that further funding delays will trigger massive project cost overruns and deepen future water and energy shortages.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2026
Comments