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What did the Indus Civilization, the ancient Egyptian civilization, and the ancient Mesopotamian civilization have in common? They were all built near or around a continuous source of water. If one were to look back in the annals of history, we would see that throughout the progression of human society, water was always close by and plentiful.
In our modern, industrial society, the importance of water has only increased. Apart from fulfilling its role as a life-giving substance that supports all the flora and fauna in the biomes on the planet, water also acts as a major component of the socio-economic landscape of all the countries on Earth. It affects the economy of a country both directly and indirectly. Below, I will be discussing the significance of water for some of the more important industries of Pakistan, and in later parts of the essay, I will be discussing possible solutions to this crisis.
One major industry that is directly and profoundly linked to the availability and sustainability of water resources is the agricultural industry, it is not rocket science to realize how important water is for the sustainable development of this industry. At the heart of agriculture is the proper growth and development of various species of crops, without water, this growth will be forever stunted and the development of the industry will come to a halt. For Pakistan, which is mainly an agriculture-based economy (agriculture accounts for 28% of Pakistan’s GDP growth (bookhut.net, 2014)) the significance of water in this industry should not be undermined.
Apart from agriculture, water also plays an important role in other sectors of the economy. The industrial sector is the second largest contributor to Pakistan’s GDP (24%). (Industry of Pakistan, n.d.), of which the cotton and apparel industry is the largest, accounting for about 65% of the merchandise exports and almost 40% of the employed labor force, (World Bank, 2006) is also a water-dependent sector. For the textile, industry water is used in dyes, special chemicals, and in finishing chemicals to treat the product. Due to the unique ability of water to dissolve most substances, it also works as a very effective cleaning agent, which is also a very important role it plays in the textile industry.
From the above two examples, it is clear that more than half of Pakistan’s GDP growth is directly linked to the proper management of water resources. But these only show the direct relation of water to the economy there are numerous other sectors that are indirectly affected by water.
After realizing the importance of water, it is time to approach the central part of the water issue, proper water resource management. The first part of approaching this issue is grasping the fact that we are a water-deficient nation.
From the following analyses by various institutions, it is not that difficult to acknowledge the reality of the above statement.
- According to a recent report by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Pakistan ranks third in the world among countries facing acute water shortages. (Baloch, 2018)
- According to a report by the World Resources Institute, Pakistan is on track to become the most water-stressed country in the region, and 23rd in the world, by the year 2040. (Buhne, 2017)
- According to the Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resources, Pakistan may run dry by 2025 if the present conditions continue. They claim that the country touched the ‘water stress line’ in 1990, and crossed the ‘water scarcity line’ in 2005 (Buhne, 2017)
- An important statistic that the UN Food and Agricultural organization uses to measure the load on national water resources is the percentage of the Total renewable water resources (TRWR) value, any value above 25% is considered high-stress, for Pakistan this percentage is a mega 74%, as compared to the values of its neighbors, with Iran at 67%, India at 40%, Afghanistan at 31%, and China at 19.5%. (Buhne, 2017)
Now, we come to the important and difficult part of the problem, how to solve the issue of depleting water resources? The short answer is that we cannot, we simply cannot recycle all of the water that we are using. Yes, at a personal level, we could recycle most of the water we are using, but at the macro level we would still be wasting more than we were recycling and despite our best efforts the net effect on the resource would still be negative. The only thing that we can do is to prolong our resources as much as we can through proper resource management techniques and hope that in time we can come up with a permanent solution to this issue.
The first and arguably most important part of proper water management starts at the individual level. We should try to adopt ways of using water with minimal wastage.
Starting with, statistically speaking, where the most water is wasted in a common household, the washroom. When we are brushing our teeth, we should try to turn off the tap when brushing our teeth. We should try to store the shower water as we are waiting for it to heat and use it later on, for example, to water the plants or for cleaning. We should also try cutting our showering times by a few minutes. In short, for any activity involving water, from cleaning hands to cleaning porches we should try to minimize the use of water.
Of course, these small acts do not account for a lot when looking at the big picture, but as someone said “save your pennies and the pounds will take care of themselves”, in this case, we are the pennies and the national economies and even perhaps the Earth, itself, are the pounds.
And this brings me to perhaps the most important part of the individual solution, awareness, if just a small portion of the population in the whole country was to follow the above advice then it is obvious that not much would be done towards achieving the goal, but if, say, half of the population of the nation would change their lifestyles and start saving several gallons of water a day by following the advice, we would be seeing savings in the millions of gallons per day. So, as much as we should try shaving those few gallons in our daily routines, it is equally important to spread awareness to our fellow citizens about the importance of saving water, be it through social media, conversations, or newspaper articles.
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