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Σπλιτ-Δαλματία, Κροατία

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Croatia is the country that has the most water in Europe. 

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Croatia is the country that has the most water in Europe. 

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Question 9   "Water scarcity" - eTwinning Project "Our Water. Our Lives" 2022/23

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The causes of water scarcity in Europe. 

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The causes of water scarcity in Europe. 

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Question 3   "Water scarcity" - eTwinning Project "Our Water. Our Lives" 2022/23

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Ποτέντσα, Ιταλία

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The countries in Europe that face the bigest water scarcity problem.

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The countries in Europe that face the bigest water scarcity problem.

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Question 2  "Water scarcity" - eTwinning Project "Our Water. Our Lives" 2022/23

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Question 1   "Water scarcity" - eTwinning Project "Our Water. Our Lives" 2022/23

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Water scarcity in Europe: How to reduce it

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South África is one of the five African countries most affected by water scarcity

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🚰 What's causing water shortages? | Inside Story

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Namíbia is one of the five African countries most affected by water scarcity

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Sudão is one of the five African countries most affected by water scarcity

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Somália

Somália is one of the five African countries most affected by water scarcity

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A student of 4th grade describes the situation regarding water in Norway. In contrast to other European countries Norway has an abundance of water resources as presented in the video.

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A video by the EU Representation in Greece about water scarcity on popular Greek islands such as Mykonos and a demonstration of some measures taken to address the situation.

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Ευρωπαϊκή Επιτροπή στην Ελλάδα

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Αντιμετώπιση της λειψυδρίας στα ελληνικά νησιά

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A poem about water scarcity Part 2

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A poem about water scarcity Part 1

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Some multimedia to test the map.

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India is one of Asian countries the most affected by water scarcity.

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Afghanistan  is one of  Asian  countries most affected by water scarcity.

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Pakistan is the most affected Coutry in Asia.

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Iqbal Institute of Policy Studies - IIPS

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"Thousands have lived without love, not one without water," -W.H. Auden.

Water is life; it is the basis of life on this planet, and it is a crucial element for human survival. Though water covers two-third of this planet, not all of it is drinkable. Water Crisis in the country has been a hot topic for a while, but there remains confusion about this crisis's nature. This blog takes a deep dive into Pakistan's water crisis to understand it and provides remedies to deal with it.

To understand Pakistan's water crisis, one needs to look at the country's core water issues. There are four core issues lumped as the country's water crisis: access to clean drinking water, shortage of water, institutional setups and mismanagement of water resources, and the looming threats of climate change.

Pakistan has serious issues with access to clean water, especially in large metropolitan cities like Karachi. About 20% of the country has access to safe drinking water, which is alarming. The leading cause of poor water quality is industrial and domestic waste being dumping into rivers and lakes. This factor directly impacts the population's health; for instance, diarrhoea, a water-borne disease, causes 16% of child deaths in the country. During the present-day pandemic, where diarrhoea is one of the symptoms of Covid-19 disease, such water quality issues can magnify pandemics destruction.

Furthermore, Pakistan lacks necessary storage facilities, which often causes shortages and floods. According to the latest news report in a local daily, " Pakistan's live water storage capacity that used to be 16.26 million acre-feet (MAF) in 1976 has reduced to 13.68MAF, which equals to only 30 days' carryover capacity." Pakistan needs to increase this capacity to store water to avoid shortages and avoid flooding, which last year wreak havoc in Karachi and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Moreover, the country's water institutional setups and mismanagement of water resources have contributed to political issues that hamper reaching solutions to the country's water crisis. When the British left Indian Subcontinent and divided them into two sovereign nations: India and Pakistan, there was no understanding of how they would share the Indus River System. Soon after the country's independence, India, from which country's rivers flow, stopped the water to Pakistan. Both countries sought World Bank to solve this issue, and the Indus Water Treaty was born. It gave the eastern tributes of the Indus River System to India, and Pakistan got the western ones.

Over the years, the Indian population and, resultantly, its water needs have increased. This need has led to India building dams on Pakistani rivers. The two countries have a long history of hostilities, and this became a point of tension. Thus far, Indian dam ambitions have not impacted Pakistan's water needs, but they could have severe implications in the future.

Moreover, in local politics, water is again a critical fault line. The first issue in local politics is dam construction. Some smaller provinces fear that the construction of certain dams will desiccate their agricultural lands. Indus River System Authority distributes water in the country, and some small provinces complain Punjab is gulping their share of water through flood irrigation. Flood irrigation is a prime example of the mismanagement of water resources. Anatol Lieven mentions seeing flood irrigation as an utter waste of the resource in his book Pakistan a Hard Country. Farmers from tail-end regions have been protesting against water shortage in the Indus Delta for a while.

Finally, climate change would most likely increase Pakistan's water woes. The glaciers in the north are melting, causing flooding and depleting a source of freshwater. This threat will worsen Pakistan's situation, which is already a water stress country.

To solve the water crisis, Pakistan first needs to collect data and conduct a needs assessment. At present, there is no actual data available on Pakistan's water resources and their depletion rate. Most of the data used in the water talk are estimated or based on expert opinions. There is also a need to do a water needs assessment. The Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resources is doing needs assessments on crop water requirements, and there is a need to do this for all sectors of the economy and domestic use.

Secondly, Pakistan needs to improve its water resource management. The agriculture sector is shrinking in size, contributions to the economy and employment, but it has the highest share in its water use. The first step here can be replacing the flood irrigation method with a shower. A point to note here is that it does not apply to rice cultivation. Another step could be charging a use-based fee for water consumption instead of a flat user fee, which will increase water consumption instead of waste.

Thirdly, Pakistan also needs to create water filtration plants to provide clean drinking water to its people. It also needs to clean out its rivers and lakes that provide water to its cities. Keenjhar Lake, which provides for Karachi's drinking water, is being a dumping site for years. Cleaning such lakes and introducing waste management can ensure the provision of clean drinking water.

Finally, Pakistan needs to create more storage facilities. It should be built small dams and large dams that do not cause political controversy. The country must also instil a water conservation mindset in the people.

In a nutshell, Pakistan faces a severe but solvable water crisis. It is water-stressed, lacks storage facilities, and has poor drinking water. The politics around water makes it hard to resolve the issue, and mismanagement of resources is further creating problems. Pakistan can solve this issue by first collecting data and then managing resources accordingly. Then it could reduce water waste in agriculture, create storage and filtration facilities and instil a water conservation mentality in the people.

Daud, M., Nafees, M., Ali, S., Rizwan, M., Bajwa, R., & Shakoor, M. et al. (2017). Drinking Water Quality Status and Contamination in Pakistan. Biomed Research International, 2017, 1-18. doi: 10.1155/2017/7908183

Quadri, F., Nasrin, D., Khan, A., Bokhari, T., Tikmani, S. S., Nisar, M. I., Bhatti, Z., Kotloff, K., Levine, M. M., & Zaidi, A. (2013). Health care use patterns for diarrhea in children in low-income periurban communities of Karachi, Pakistan. The American journal of tropical medicine and hygiene, 89(1 Suppl), 49-55. https://doi.org/10.4269/ajtmh.12-0757

Dawn, Country's water storage capacity on the decline. (2021). Retrieved 1 September 2021, from https://www.dawn.com/news/1607566

Anwar, A. (2021). Pakistan's provincial water disputes: a way forward. Retrieved 1 September 2021, from https://www.dawn.com/news/1273760#:~:text=The%20Water%20Apportionment%20Accord%20is,8%25%20and%20Baluchistan%203%25.

Lieven, A. (2012). Pakistan: A hard country. PublicAffairs.

Dawn Correspondent. (2021). Thar farmers protest unavailability of water in tail-end areas. Retrieved 1 September 2021, from https://www.dawn.com/news/1633027/thar-farmers-protest-unavailability-of-water-in-tail-end-areas

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Water Crisis in Pakistan and Its Remedies

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"Thousands have lived without love, not one without water," -W.H. Auden. Water is life; it is the basis of life on this planet, and it is a crucial element for human survival. Though water covers two-third of this planet, not all of it is drinkable.

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international relations and national security

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India has just five years to solve its water crisis, experts fear. Otherwise hundreds of millions of lives will be in danger | CNN

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The world's second-most populous country is running out of water.

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Only 27 percent of the population has access to safely managed water, a slight (3 percent) improvement from 2000. Access to safely managed sanitation remains low throughout the country, though 62 percent of people have access to at least basic sanitation services.

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Nepal is highly vulnerable to climate instability, struggling with both water scarcity in some areas and increased flooding in others. Only 27 percent of the population has access to safely managed water, a slight (3 percent) improvement from 2000. Access to safely managed sanitation remains low thr…