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Islamabad: The Senate Standing Committee on Water Resources, chaired by Senator Shahadat Awan, convened today at the Parliament House to review the status of groundwater depletion in Pakistan and related mitigation efforts.
According to Senate of Pakistan, Senator Awan began the meeting by noting that Pakistan is the third-largest country in the world in terms of extracting underground water, accounting for 9 percent of global groundwater extraction. He highlighted the imbalance between groundwater extraction and recharge and pointed out that one-third of Pakistan’s natural water is wasted in the sea.
Dr. Hifza Rasheed, the Director General of PCRWR, presented data on groundwater depletion, beginning with the province of Punjab, where the depth to the water table reportedly ranges from 5 to 140 feet. However, this data was contested by the Secretary of the Ministry of Water Resources, which led to expressions of astonishment and annoyance from Chairman Awan. He questioned how the committee could proceed with inaccurate data acknowledged by the ministry itself.
Chairman Awan also raised concerns about the accuracy of data for the capital city and the provinces of Punjab and Sindh. The Secretary attributed the inaccuracies to malfunctioning piezometers and misreporting by WASA. Senator Muhammad Humayun Mohmand inquired about the responsibility for the installation and maintenance of piezometers, to which it was clarified that this duty falls under the ambit of the Irrigation Departments of the concerned provinces. The Secretary stated that accurate data could not be provided until sufficient piezometers are installed.
Chairman Awan pointed out that the briefing included data from reliable sources such as the PCRWR, Punjab Irrigation Department, and Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, lamenting the inaccurate data presented by the ministry. The meeting was adjourned with a directive for the Ministry to conduct an internal review with all relevant departments responsible for data collection before presenting the information again at the next committee meeting.
The meeting was attended by Senator Mohammad Humayun Mohmand, Senator Poonjo Bheel, and other senior officials from concerned departments.
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