50 million people have no access to safe drinking water, seminar told

Speakers at a seminar while stressing the need for water conservation have revealed that almost 50 million people in Pakistan have no access to safe drinking water.

While speaking on 'Water Conservation Methods,' organized by Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE) here on Tuesday, they attributed around 40 percent of annual deaths to contaminated water. They further said that in Pakistan 90 percent of total water is used in agriculture sector, 7 percent in industrial sector and only 3 percent is being used domestically.

The seminar among others was attended by Engineer Shamsul Mulk, former chairman WAPDA, Dr Nadeem Ul-Haq, Vice Chancellor (VC) PIDE, Engineer Naeem Qureshi, consultant, Syed Abu Ahmad Akif, former federal secretary, and Dr Zaigham Habib, consultant.

Speaking on the occasion, Engineer Shamsul Mulk said that construction of new hydel dams, including Kalabagh dam, is vital to control massive loss of water during monsoon and to meet growing energy and agricultural needs of the ever increasing population of the water-starved country.

Terming Kalabagh dam a technically most feasible project, he said the construction of new dams including Kalabagh and Diamir-Bhasha is inevitable to overcome the acute energy shortage and to tackle water situation currently being faced by the country.

"Dams are necessary to feed increasing population, increase the cultivation area, boost industrial output and save the country from becoming a desert," he said.

He said that as per Indus Waters Treaty, India can't stop water flows to Pakistan but the authorities in Pakistan lack willpower and decision-making powers which are critical for the construction of mega water reservoirs. He said that every important water reservoir building project in Pakistan is not approved in Islamabad but in New Delhi, saying India and other global powers will never allow Pakistan to become self-sufficient in any filed. He said it is the need of the hour for the authorities in Pakistan to shun political differences and develop unity among all the provinces for construction of mega water reservoirs, saying without electricity, gas, vehicles and trains, people can stay alive but without water life is impossible.

He said Kalabagh Dam was planned with an annual generation capacity of 12 billion units of electricity, at a cost of Rs 1.2 per unit, but due to incessant delays in its construction, Wapda fulfilled demand by generating electricity by using expensive fuel, which cost the nation around Rs 192 billion annually.

He said China and India had built 22,000 and 4,500 small, medium and big dams respectively, but Pakistan has comparatively constructed very little number of dams despite having huge water potential stretched from Himalya Mountains to Karakoram and Hindukush regions.

While regretting over not taking issue of construction of new dams seriously, the former chairman Wapda said it is unfortunate that not a single dam was constructed after Tarbela Dam by any government in the past, and resultantly the country is now at the edge of water crisis.

The underground water level would further drop in the coming years, which would create a lot of problems for the people seeking potable water and this serious issue could be tackled only with the construction of new water reservoirs in the country.

Dr Zaigham Habib, a water expert, said water and energy crisis are taking a heavy toll on economy and agricultural growth, therefore, water should be conserved at all costs, including the rainwater, by building new dams. She also talked about cost benefit analysis of building mega water reservoirs and not conserving the water by putting example of Johannesburg city, wherein people are hit by serious water crisis.