Water scarcity is a growing concern worldwide. Overuse, increasing demand, pollution, poor management, lack of infrastructure and changes in weather patterns due to global warming are key stresses that affect freshwater availability.

The World Health Organisation states that safe and readily available water is important for public health. It is used for drinking, domestic use, food production and recreational purposes. Improved water supply and sanitation, and better management of water resources, can boost a country’s economic growth and can contribute greatly to poverty reduction.

The World Water Day (WWD) is held every year on March 22 to raise awareness regarding the importance of freshwater and its sensible use, as 2.2 billion people worldwide are currently living without access to safe water. One in three people globally does not have access to safe drinking water. A core focus on this occasion is to support the achievement of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal of “Water and Sanitation for all by 2030”. Every year a theme is announced. This year’s theme emphasises “Groundwater: Making the Invisible Visible”. This draws attention to the hidden water resource that has always been critically important but not fully recognised in sustainable development policymaking.

Climate change, increasing water shortage, population growth, demographic changes and urbanisation already pose challenges for water supply systems. By 2025, half of the world’s population will be living in water-stressed areas. The Covid-19 pandemic has demonstrated the urgent need for universal access to safe water, as frequent and proper hand washing with soap and water is one of the most effective actions to prevent the spread of Covid-19.

The most dry areas of the world depend entirely on groundwater. Groundwater supplies a large proportion of the water we use for drinking, sanitation, food production and industrial processes. It is recharged mainly from rain and snowfall infiltrating the ground and can be extracted by pumps and wells.

53,000 Pakistani children under five years of age die annually from diarrhoea due to poor water supply and sanitation. An estimated 70 percent of households still drink bacterially contaminated water. This is an additional burden on health services.

Groundwater is a vital resource that provides almost half of all drinking water worldwide, about 40 percent of water for irrigated agriculture and about a third of water required for the industry. It sustains ecosystems, maintains the base flow of rivers and prevents land subsidence and seawater intrusion. Groundwater is an important part of the climate change adaptation process and is often a solution for people without access to safe surface water.

Good water quality is essential to human health, social and economic development and the ecosystem. However, as the population grows and natural environments become degraded, sufficient and safe water supplies for everyone become a serious challenge. Ninety-seven percent of the earth’s water is found in the oceans which is too salty for drinking, growing crops, and most industrial uses, three percent of the earth’s water is fresh, only two percent forms groundwater. The availability of safe and sufficient water supplies is closely linked to managing wastewater. Globally, 80 percent of wastewater flows back into the ecosystem without being treated or reused.

Pakistan is amongst the top ten countries with the lowest access to clean water close to home. Only 20 percent of the whole population of Pakistan has access to safe drinking water. The remaining 80 percent of the population is forced to use unsafe drinking water due to the scarcity of safe and healthy drinking water sources. Contaminated water and poor sanitation are linked to the transmission of diseases such as cholera, diarrhoea, dysentery, hepatitis-A, typhoid and polio. 53,000 Pakistani children under the age of five die annually from diarrhoea due to poor water and sanitation. An estimated 70 percent of households still drink bacterially contaminated water which is an additional burden on health services.

The drinking water distribution in urban areas does not meet the WHO standards. The main reason for microbial contamination is mixing sewer lines with drinking water supply lines. In most of the urban areas of Pakistan, surface water is used for drinking after slow sand filtration, whereas in most rural areas, no pretreatment facilities are available for the filtration of water.

Given the situation, the construction of large dams, particularly the Kalabagh dam, is vital to control massive loss of water during monsoon.

Being an agrarian economy, Pakistan cannot afford to waste huge quantities of water resources. Shortage of water has not only stunted the agriculture sector, it is also affecting the manufacturing sector.

Pakistan currently stores just 10 percent of its available water. The rest flows into the sea. There’s a great need to build more dams to store water for both irrigation and power generation purposes.

In 2010, the UN General Assembly clearly recognised the human right to water and sanitation by stating, “Everyone has the right to sufficient, continuous, safe, acceptable, physically accessible and affordable water for personal and domestic use”. On the other hand, widespread water quality degradation across the world has become a serious water problem, threatening human health and ecosystem reliability. Water resources sustainability and quality challenges bring even greater concerns, calling for urgent attention by national governments.