Pakistan is the sixth most populous country in the world with essentially an agricultural based economy. Water is an absolutely essential element for agriculture. However, Pakistan’s inability to plan for its future, and currently having poor infrastructure, outdated irrigation system and its internal politics has placed it on a disastrous path towards water scarcity. The apathy in the role played by the various stakeholders and the water institution that deals with the water allocation and its distribution has really been substandard to say the least. In essence it’s been the management aspect that has been the core reason why Pakistan finds itself in current disastrous situation today as far as water scarcity is concerned.
The United
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This involves all levels of stakeholder integration to solve the issue of water scarcity.
In order to fix Pakistan problems of water scarcity, one first need to look at its geography, thus enabling us not only to understand the basic physical system such as water cycle, but also to determine the physical and cultural characteristics of the region. The other important aspect to understand is the administrative setup within Pakistan, which basically refers to the political structure of the governmental setup inside Pakistan. The next key step is to talk about water management in Pakistan using a theoretical lens to analyze the role of different stakeholders in the country and problems faced by the water sector.
a) Pakistan’s water geography:
If we look at Map 1 below, we see that Pakistan’s water topography, basically consisting of four major rivers, i.e. Indus, Jhelum, Ravi and Sutlej. The Indus River is the largest and major river of Pakistan and runs across the length of the country from north to south. It is considered on all accounts as the lifeline for the country, for all aspects including agriculture, transport, electricity, fishing communities as reported by the FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations). The Indus River stretches from the Himalayan Mountains in the north to the dry and terrestrial plains of
According to the International Water Management Institute environmental research organisation global water stress is increasing, and a third of all people face some sort of water scarcity. Where demand exceeds supply and no effective management operates, there will be conflicts between the various players involved.
A nation with a lot to lose. The huge, industrial and overpopulated country we know as China, is going through a water scarcity crisis. North China’s lack of water affects more of the region than anyone can imagine. Causing negative problems for food supply, economic development, political stability, and international relations, including drying up their major rivers. What are creating these complications? Global Warming, Urbanization and Population Growth, and Industrialization are the three main causes of China’s water crisis. Of these, the biggest driver is Industrialization.
Countries will face many problems due to climate change and the capacity of a government to provide health care will be reduced dramatically. What water scarcity does not necessarily mean the availability of water, with the planet being 70 percent water, but the quality of water. Presently, poor countries are already being affected by water scarcity. It is reported that currently 1.2 billion people do not have access to safe drinking water and this figure will be 2.7 to 3.5 billion people by 2025 if effective steps are not taken to mitigate the water scarcity problem. Climate change causes different factors which may headway for political and social conflicts, so water scarcity will have major impacts on populations’ health. South Asian Studies is a reputable research journal out of the University of Punjab, which has been printed and available online since 1984. Muhammad Zakria Zakar, one of the three authors of this article is a professor at the University of Punjab. Rebeena Zakar, second of the three authors is the Chairman of the Public Health and Quantitative Social Research department at the University of Punjab. Third and final author of this paper is Florian Fischer, a professor at University of Bielefeld in Germany. The evidence of human caused climate change affecting the entire worlds water resources I can use to support my argument on water scarcity and its effects on
Water, like food, is a necessity for human life that is used for many purposes such as agricultural, industrial, and domestic systems. While water is a common element around the world not all of it is clean and able to be consumed or used by humans. With only a percentage of the world’s water being clean and the use of water increasing, the availability of water around the world has become a common issue in the developing and even the developed world. This may be a smaller problem in areas close to clean water sources compared to areas far from a clean water source but, the availability of water is not strictly based on location, it also depends on the specific political and social needs and issues of the area as well. These all become issues that must be accounted for when deciphering whether water is a basic human right or a commodity and what action must be taken to aid the developing water systems in community’s that lack them.
Using named examples, assess the contribution of large scale water management projects in increasing water security. 15 Water security means having access to sufficient, safe, clean and affordable water. Theoretically, the world’s poorer countries are the most water insecure, suffering from both physical and economic water scarcity. One solution to tackle water insecurity is through large scale water projects for example the Three Gorges project in China, the South-North transfer project also in China and the restoration of the Aral Sea. However there is much controversy over whether these schemes are actually sustainable and therefore beneficial in the long run. The Three Gorges da project in China blocks the Yangtze River; it cost $50
Many people know that water is essential for human-being and it is not only valuable for health and life, but water is also important for industry and agriculture. Furthermore, use of water has a spiritual, cultural and recreational dimension. However, water resources are not infinite. Wide and inefficient use of water resources can lead to irreversible consequences, such as water shortage. This essay will firstly discuss the problem of water shortage on examples of developed and developing countries and include the diversification of the same issue in the different parts of the world. It will also identify causes and effects of this environmental problem on society and other spheres of life. Moreover, in this essay I am going to propose
This population provided the needed labor in the commercial exploitation of oil. With the small percentage of arable land and low precipitation in the country, it became considerably important to develop water alternatives that meet the peoples’ needs. Since the country has little amounts of surface water, it has focused on the extraction of underground water and desalinization in order to sustain the growing water demands. Similarly, the economic proceedings in the country have facilitated the appropriate means of supplying water. Regardless of the government’s efforts, there still exists a huge gap between the amount of water supplied and its demand. Therefore, the study focuses on the factors that influence water crisis in UAE. In analyzing the water crisis, the study seeks to establish the role that nature and people play in contributing to the phenomenon. In this regard, conclusions will be drawn based on the major contributor, which has escalated the water crisis in UAE. This implies nature will entail factors such as the level of precipitation and availability of surface and underground water, which enhance the adversity of water crisis in the country. On the other hand, people will entail analysis of the level of water utilization in activities such as agriculture, electricity generation, and consumption. Therefore, they can establish the major contributors to the water crisis.
Across the world, how one gets water is different depending on the environment and the climate someone lives in. The “intensive use of groundwater” and desalination potential and limitation, has been brought to the attention of people by Elena Lopez-Gunn and Manuel Ramón Llamas. When looking at arid or semi-arid regions, the use of groundwater can make a huge difference. This is explained through a serious tone that is supported by an abundance of facts to prove that this statistic is actually a possibility for countries around the world. “Groundwater systems globally provide 25 to 40% of the world’s drinking water and more than half of the world’s population relies on groundwater for its drinking water supply” (Lopez-Gunn and Llamas). Even though cultures are different around the world, this one type of water system is shared by many
Water is the protection of life. Many countries are lack of water ,and many people do not know how to cherish water in our country .A lot of people to waste water every day, since all of them just take it for granted. We should consider that Water- poor countries are faced with the seriousness of water problem and how much water they can handle, and are also focused at how to adopt measures to facilitate a continuous supply of clean water to developing countries.
The water crisis in the world is increasing, and it will continue to increase if something is not done. Water makes up approximately seventy-one percent of Earth’s surface. This does not include the water underground. Everyday water is being taken more than it is being put in, and people have a large role in this. Climate change, the number of people in the world, and water wasted is among the uppermost causes of the water crisis. It is simple, if you do not have water, you will eventually die. The water crisis is a health crisis for everyone globally.
The thesis, The Water Crisis in Third World Countries, By Monterey Starkey from the Honors program at Liberty University describes the difficulty of obtaining adequate drinking water and presents solutions to this issue. Starkey begins by noting the importance water has on the human body. Additionally, Starkey explains, fresh water is becoming scarce which makes water transportation difficult to needy areas. Aquifers and rainwater are possible solutions to water transportation (Starkey 9). The cost of water in poverty-stricken are much higher than those in rich areas (Starkey 10). The article also implies water shortages affect community growth (15). Starkey believes filtering, boiling, chlorinating, educating, harvesting, roof catching and
It is an essential resource for sustaining life as well as central to agriculture and rural development, and is intrinsically linked to global challenges of food insecurity and poverty, climate change adaptation and mitigation, as well as degradation and depletion of natural resources that affect the livelihoods of millions of people across the world. According to the World Bank, (2010) report, water is a scarce resource with multiple interwoven uses that range from drinking water, energy, irrigation, manufacturing things, transport of people and goods among others. The report further states that, more than one-sixth of the Worlds’ population does not have access to safe drinking water, with 80% living in rural areas thus access to water cannot not be guaranteed globally.
Like other South Asian countries, Pakistan continues to suffer from a plethora of natural and human induced hazards that threaten to affect the lives and livelihood of its citizens – natural disasters including floods, earthquakes, landslides, cyclones, and drought to human induced disasters such as fires, civil unrest and terrorism, refugees and internally displaced people, health epidemics, transport accidents, industrial accidents and war. The human impact of natural disasters in Pakistan can be judged by the fact that 6,037 people were killed and 8,989,631 affected in the period between 1993-2002 (World Disasters Report 2003, Geneva, International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies). 1.1- Geography: Pakistan lies between latitudes 24 and 37 degrees north and longitudes 62 and 75 degrees east covering a total land area of 796,095 sq km. The country shares its borders with Iran to the west, India in the Southeast, Afghanistan in the north-west, and China in the north. The Arabian Sea lies to its south. Pakistan is a land of great topographic and climatic contrasts. The topography varies from coastal beaches, sandy
Water depletion is a serious problem throughout the world, as people continue to drain water for not only irrigation, but also to provide water for the citizens of each country. This means that water is being drained from lakes, rivers, and streams; but people are also bleeding the aquifers of their water, which is an unsustainable resource. This is a serious problem for people all around the world, as countries and individuals overuse the finite resources in the groundwater. This will cause issues in the growth of crops, livestock, and will cause water shortages for people in general.
In the present scenario management and distribution of water has become centralized. People depend on government system, which has resulted in disruption of community participation in water management and collapse of traditional water harvesting system.