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¬ecently Finance Ministry of Pakistan issued economic survey of 2009-10 that put blames of majority
problems on water crisis in Pakistan. Almost every sector depends on water resources either its power
generation, or agriculture. Economists had fore seen that water crisis will get worse in next 25 to 30
years. But government has turned blind eye by not giving importance to this large-scale issue. Although
the GDP increased to 4.1% in year 2009-10 compared to last year͛s GDP of 1.2% but main sectors like
livestock, agriculture recorded drastic decline over the years due to serious water crisis. Pakistan is a
country rich in natural resources and agriculture is considered the backbone of our economy. During
1980͛s the contribution of agriculture sector was around 60% of GDP growth rate but this figure has
declined to just 29%. This sector is continuing a secular trend of decline over the past several years
mainly due to the persistent negligence of government towards this sector.

Total population of Pakistan has increased to 173.51 million and according to a study the country has
slipped below 100m3 of water per capita from year 2010. Water unavailability is however another major
obstacle to the development of the country in terms of the food security, economic development and
industrialization. The water shortage in agriculture sector alone has been estimated 29% for 2010 and
33% for 2025.

Despite all these issues, the current scenario has almost twisted, now we have abundant water in form
of floods and heavy rains but we lack water reservoirs and dams. Present dams and reservoirs are full to
their capacity and are not enough to control floods. There was no pre-planning for water management,
our government was just stresses on problems not on solutions or infrastructure development. At the
time of water crisis the major solution was to build water dams that could not only solve the problem of
water shortage but could help in electricity generation as well. But this problem prolonged due to inter-
province conflicts. Pakistani economy bore huge set backs in form of providing the public with
alternatives to solution, not the solution.

We have not just forgot the Swat operation in which millions in funds were allocated for rehabilitation,
shelter, maintenance and food purposes and all this happened due to poor security issue in Pakistan.
Now once again we are on the same turn, huge funds will be allocated to rehabilitation of flood victims,
infrastructure development, and concerning health issues. I am unable to understand where is the
government͛s five year plan for economic development? when millions and billions from budget have to
be used for rehabilitation or support purposes. Water is neither the main issue nor the flood because it͛s
a natural disaster; actually it is

 


where we are standing. This is our elected
government which is not even eligible to be on their seats anymore. Since the time, this government has
been elected it has not solved a single issue either its security or energy crisis. Now more than 100,000
households need aid who have lost everything in floods. All this happened due to poor disaster
management and poor infrastructure development. This is high time to think over that it͛s again a huge
loss to our economy in the form of loss of valuable lives, severe damage to crops, agriculture, livestock
sector, and destroyed infrastructure of roads and communication.
ur economy is desperately drowning due to the government͛s poor management, ineffective policies
and under-investment in critical sectors. These matters can not be deferred any longer and will require
enormous resources.