Pakistan’s water crisis is not a distant threat—it is unfolding now. With a population of 255 million and rising, the country is officially water-scarce. By 2050, when Pakistan’s population is projected to reach 380 million, it risks becoming one of the most water-insecure nations on earth. Yet national discourse remains trapped in a sterile debate: should we build more dams? This is not a strategy; it is a distraction. Reducing a survival crisis to engineering or provincial disputes allows politicians, technocrats, and even academics to avoid confronting deeper structural failures.

Per capita water availability has plunged over the past three decades. From around 1,700 cubic metres per person in the 1990s, it fell to roughly 1,107 cubic metres by 2021 and is now estimated at 860 cubic metres, well below the UN’s water scarcity threshold of 1,000 cubic metres and edging towards the “absolute scarcity” mark of 500 cubic metres. This is not abstract data: reservoirs shrink, groundwater falls nearly a metre annually in cities like Lahore, and saline intrusion steadily degrades Sindh’s aquifers. The result is mounting stress on agriculture, looming food insecurity, and growing pressure on urban water and energy supplies—threatening livelihoods, public health, and economic stability.

Yet public debate remains narrowly focused on dams, while the underlying drivers go largely unexamined. Rapid population growth, inefficient irrigation, unregulated groundwater use, outdated energy infrastructure, and weak governance are ignored, even as politicians and media redirect blame externally to India or emphasise seepage, sedimentation, and displacement. Building more reservoirs will not solve these problems unless water, food, and energy systems are managed together—through regulation, reform, and integrated planning—a comprehensive approach Pakistan has so far failed to implement.

Over 90% of freshwater is consumed by farming, yet irrigation remains outdated

Claims of 400 million acre-feet stored underground are often cited as a solution. But this “hidden wealth” is not a strategy; it is a mirage. Aquifers are being mined unsustainably, with recharge far below extraction. Lahore’s........

© The Friday Times