Water scarcity to make Pakistan a failed state in a decade

Lahore: The Pakistan Economy Watch (PEW) on Sunday said water scarcity is to transform Pakistan into a totally failed state within a decade.

War between Pakistan and India on the issue of water resources seems inevitable as serious efforts by Islamabad to increase trade between the two countries has not helped New Delhi to change its policy of water aggression, said Dr. Murtaza Mughal, President PEW.

Speaking at a seminar on World Water Day, he said that according Most Favoured Nation status to India may not change its decades-old policy to make Pakistan infertile.

The issue of water aggression cannot be resolved through enhanced trade or negotiations as India may not like to settle the dispute except a full scale armed conflict with global implications, he observed.

Dr. Murtaza Mughal said that all the civilian and military governments of Pakistan have failed to ensure water security or advocate India to change its long-term policy of destroying Pakistan through water hostilities.

India will continue to build dams violating Indus Water Treaty while majority of international forums would continue to support New Delhi which has left Pakistan will little options, he said.

Presently Pakistan can store ten million acre feet of water while it had storage capacity of sixteen million acre feet of water some thirty eight years ago.

According to a report of World Bank, water scarcity became a threat in Pakistan some eleven years ago as per capita water availability was around half of the accepted international level.

Dr. Mughal said that water scarcity will become a great danger in the next ten years which will hurt masses, agriculture and industry leading to tensions between provinces and civil war which would be enough to make Pakistan a totally failed state.