ISLAMABAD: Pakistan is a country facing depleting water resources mainly due to climate change and poor water resource management.
Demand for irrigation water may increase due to higher evaporation rates.
Hotter temperatures are likely to increase energy demand due to increased air conditioning requirements.
Around 70% of the rural population doesn’t have access to the safe drinking water, which means they are vulnerable to water-borne diseases.
Response is defined as preparedness, but in Pakistan the extreme weather events are increasing; the super floods of 2010 affected around 20 million people in the country, and in 2011 five years of rainfall fell in just four weeks in Sindh.
In 2012, there were more floods.
The last few years of continuous flooding in the country has had a long-term impact on farmers’ ability to produce food.
In Pakistan, climate change in the form of heavy floods—due to Himalayan glacier melting—, droughts, and changing rain patterns—1500 mm in upper part of Pakistan—are adversely affecting the water resources that require effective planning and sufficient resource allocations to manage draining water resources.
In the wake of the deteriorating condition of water availability, there is growing need to allocate more fiscal resources by both federal and provincial governments.
There is also a need to increase the percentage of budget allocation-to-GDP for the improvement of water and sanitation in the country.