Water Day goes unnoticed in Frontier(PUKHTUNKHWA)

PESHAWAR: The 17th World Water Day (WWD) passed Sunday almost unnoticed as no function was held in the provincial capital to mark the day that is celebrated across the globe on March 22.

‘Sharing Water, Sharing Opportunities’ was the theme of the day this year. The importance of water could be gauged from the fact that the United Nations Conference on Environment Development, held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, declared March 22 as the World Water Day. However, very few people, especially those at the helm of affairs, have realised the importance of water and thought seriously to preserve water reservoirs and protect this basic commodity from being wasted.

According to experts the third world war would be fought for water. Over the last 60 years, there have been more than 200 international water agreements and only 37 cases of reported violence between states over water. But still little efforts have been made to nurture the opportunities for cooperation that trans-boundary water management can provide or share the responsibility for managing the world’s trans-boundary waters for current and future generations.

In a country like Pakistan, water shortage has already started and its effects are visible not only on domestic consumers but also on agriculture yield and energy. The current wave of electricity loadshedding in the country is because of water shortage as the country’s largest dam — Tarbela Dam — has come to a dead level causing drastic reduction in power generation.

The country has been faced with water crisis right from 1948 when India started diverting water from the eastern rivers, which left rivers and canals in Pakistan high and dry. It took 12 years of hard work and the good offices of the World Bank to arrive at the Indus Water Treaty, and another two decades to complete all engineering works, including Tarbela.

However, the rulers are yet to come out of slumber and take serious steps for overcoming the water and power crisis in the country. More than three decades were wasted on politics played over building of big water reservoirs.

After the signing of a water accord in 1991, there arose internal disputes over water distribution, especially during the shortage period. According to the water accord, the distribution of water among the provinces included a considerable volume of water from storages, which were never built for want of consensus. Demand of water per capita is on the rise and the present situation is that water availability per capita is just on the borderline, which will soon fall below the base level, opines an expert.

On the other hand, the availability of good quality freshwater has been reduced due to pollution from human waste, industry and agriculture.

Though the figures are disturbing worldwide as everyday two million tons of human waste is being dumped in watercourses, situation in Pakistan, particularly NWFP, is more alarming.

Water pollution in the NWFP has gone to the extent that according to experts the water of River Kabul is even not suitable for agriculture, let alone human consumption like drinking and domestic use.

In Peshawar, sewerage water is being disposed of in canals passing through the city besides dumping of solid waste. Same is the situation of Swat River where all hotel waste is disposed of in the river polluting the water beyond consumption.

Untreated waste of Hayatabad industrial units is being dumped into nullahs that ultimately reach Kabul River.

But unfortunately the successive governments and concerned authorities are yet to realise their responsibility of saving water from pollution and waste.