Underneath the major news headlines highlighting the socio economic issues faced by Pakistan, a major water crisis is brewing up silently since years, which is being ignored.
This problem was noted by International Monetary Fund a couple of years and advised Pakistan to employ water management techniques to harness this problem.
Pakistan has unfortunately been included in the 36 most water stressed countries in the world and more recently UNO has placed Pakistan at the 7th position amongst these countries.
The root cause of this calamity is not the shortage of this natural endowment but the poor water policy, rapid urbanisation, corruption and management.
The problem is more pronounced in the cities where the access to clean water to its residents have declined from 97 percent to 94 percent over the period of last three decades, even though the overall access to clean water has increased from 86 percent to 91 percent, majority of this happening in the rural areas.
This downturn in the cities is being compared to war torn countries like Syria and Gaza.
Although it accounts for over 20 percent of the GDP, the taxes from agriculture currently contribute less than 0.1 percent of total tax revenues This is mainly the result of a politically instable management in the country and the growing level of mismanagement and corruption amongst the authorities, which allows the drinking water to be contaminated with sewage and industrial waste.
Adding fuel to the fire is the rapid depletion of the ground water may cause drought like situation in the major cities of Pakistan.
This is mainly important, as Pakistan is an agro-based economy with agricultural products and crops making up to 20 percent of the GDP and making it the biggest consumer of the water.
Although it accounts for over 20 percent of the GDP, the taxes from the agricultural currently contribute less than 0.1 percent of the total tax revenues.