Pakistan : Terrorist Wahabi Islamic Rep Pakistan 6

[Naresh]

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[url="http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=226684"]A country of dying rivers[/url]



PAKISTAN has been dubbed a country of dying rivers in view of the dwindling river flows as a result of obstructions being created by India on the western rivers coupled with unprecedented surrendering of water rights of eastern rivers, namely Ravi, Beas and Sutlej.



Being an arid country, Pakistan solely depends on water flows, originating from three mountain ranges-Himalaya, Karakoram and Hindu Kush. World highest snowcapped mountains lie in the region besides vast glaciers that have the biggest reserves of fresh water in the form of snow outside north and south poles due to which the area is labeled third pole. Groundwater reserves, feeding the plains, are also recharged from this source and flow of fresh water right from foothills is, therefore, rightly called lifeline of the country. But shortage of water for drinking as well as irrigation purposes is a common thing nowadays in various parts of country.



This was the crux of a seminar where experts blamed the lack of proper management as one of its key reasons. They warned that the country was heading towards a disaster-like situation as the gap between demand and supply of water was increasing rapidly.



Hammad Naqi Khan, Director, Freshwater and Toxics Programme, WWF-Pakistan, presented his keynote presentation “Promoting Actions to Stop our Rivers Running Dry - Case of Indus” at an interaction with stakeholders of water sector in the country.



In his presentation, Hammad Naqi Khan has shared sets of recommendations/institutional reforms to face future challenges related to water resource management. He also threw light on the aquatic pollution and climate change.



With the passage of time, he observed, population growth, urbanisation and unsustainable water consumption practices had placed immense stress on the quantity and quality of water resources.



“Pakistan is now being ranked among the water scarce countries as per capita availability of water is decreasing gradually,” he said, adding that the flow of river could be affected adversely due to multiple factors ranging from climate change to excessive irrigation. He said at present, irrigation used about 90 percent of the water being utilised in the country and the rest was used for supplies to urban and rural population and industry. However, he said, obsolete agriculture practices were adding to the problem of water shortage. He lamented that there was no effective National Water Policy and strategy to cope with such issues.



Hammad said water requirement of the Indus Delta should be catered as it was indispensable for sustainable development of the region. He said we should not ignore supplementing loss of water storage capacity that had been declining due to siltation.



Chaudhry Hamid Malhi, Coordinator, Punjab Water Council, talked about the impact of water shortage on agriculture. He said Punjab contributed around 80 percent of agriculture produce while it was getting only 50 per cent of the river water share. The province badly suffered from the step motherly treatment, he said, adding that the policy against Punjab was against the interest of the whole country as the province served as its food basket. He stressed the need to build dams, including Kalabagh Dam, in order to ensure smooth

irrigation supplies for the agriculture sector. A fair distribution of water supplies was need of the hour and Punjab should not be pushed against the wall, he said, adding that the disparity in representation in Irsa should be removed immediately. The country was already importing food items worth billion of rupees and the farmer was also suffering, he said.



Hamid said if anyone had sympathies for environment-related issues of the Indus Delta, he or she should also have sympathy for drying rivers of Chenab, Ravi and Sutluj.



Habib Akram, a local journalist, talked at length on the issue of ‘Creating Awareness on Water Distribution Through Media.’ He said water-related issues were being highlighted through the media, however, they were not given due importance due to a variety of reasons. First reason behind was the lack of required staff, he said, adding that the quality of persons being produced by educational institutions was not up to the mark, making it difficult for the media groups to effectively focus social issues.



Sarmad Bashir, President Lahore Press Club, spoke on ‘Importance of National Media Policy With Reference To Promotion of Development Journalism.” He said no policy, in fact, had been the media policy of several governments since independence which only tried to make the media an instrument of the establishment. Various governments, including democratic ones, could not prepare a comprehensive national media policy, he said, stressing that the national media policy should focus on development journalism -a term referring to the role of the press in the process of socio-economic development.



Ayub Mayo, President Mutahida Kisan Mehaz, spoke on ‘Indian Water Aggression.’ He cautioned the audience that Pakistan was heading towards a catastrophe due to water shortage. He blamed India for blocking Chenab and other westerner rivers. He said a shortfall in the River Chenab was the result of Indian water aggression in the form of construction of Baglihar Dam on it. He said 8 million acre land was facing water shortage as a result of construction of the Baglihar Dam. Water supply to 14 major canals, 1,125 distributaries and 6,391 water channels was being affected adversely as a result of the construction of the dam, he said and added India was completing the Kishan Ganga Project on the River Jhelum. He said we had already lost waters of eastern rivers to India.



The chairperson of the seminar, Abdul Qadir Hassan, said he was a farmer however, he left behind everything and came to Lahore several decades back in a bid to become a journalist. He said the country had one of the largest irrigation systems of the world but it still could not get its benefits fully. The basic reason behind the inefficiency was mismanagement which needed to be corrected.



Dr Mugheesuddin Sheikh, Dean Faculty of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Punjab University, said the media had not succeeded in producing quality work, especially to highlight the development issues. He underlined the need to highlight issues without any bias and expressed hope that proceedings of the seminar would help understand the issue of water distribution.



Cheers