Pakistan needs improved groundwater management: report.

ISLAMABAD -- A new World Bank report says that the Indus basin groundwater in aquifers in Pakistan is at least 80 times the volume of freshwater held in the country's three biggest dams, yet in 2020 Pakistan faced a severe groundwater crisis.

The report titled 'Groundwater in Pakistan's Indus Basin: Present and Future Prospects' says Pakistan lacks a comprehensive, reliable system for measuring groundwater extractions and their impact on the resource base.

The limited investments in measurement, that have been made, have lacked coordination and been too sparse and infrequent to allow for comprehensive mapping and monitoring - the measurement or control of water quality even less so. Thus, the ability to steer groundwater use towards sustainability and tackle new challenges is compromised.

The report, released on Saturday, says in the face of rising population, the effects of climate change, and the considerable natural lag in groundwater response to management interventions, the failure to tackle these challenges is already impairing national water security and drinking water quality. Unchecked, they will lead to a sharp decrease in water security, rising costs for the treatment of drinking water, and a pathway to poverty for a significant number of the rural population, it says.

WB says supply of safe, usable groundwater is diminishing as a result of pollution, over-extraction and inappropriate irrigation practices

The decades of groundwater development in Pakistan that have elevated groundwater to its current significance have unfolded with minimal management or regulation of the resource. The supply of safe, usable groundwater is diminishing as a result of pollution, over-extraction, poor management of canal water, and inappropriate irrigation practices.

According to the report, despite decades of national and international experts predicting a burgeoning crisis and identifying key requirements to address these challenges, little attention has been given to them. As a result, depletion is curtailing feasible access to groundwater in Punjab, and waterlogging and salinity continue to threaten water and soil quality in Sindh.

Groundwater resources of Pakistan are poorly understood, both at the basin level and at the level of local administrative units where most water-related service delivery functions are vested. The existing knowledge base is sufficient, however, to paint a broad and static picture of aquifer characteristics along with...