Water Policy Reform in Pakistan amidst Climate Change

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Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM) approaches enable action by taking into consideration multiple options for enhancing water use efficiency, equal distribution among users, and environmental sustainability.

Water resources management requires a more integrated approach, rather than a sectoral one.

IWRM aims to: protect the interests of all upstream and downstream stakeholders; protect watershed and catchment areas; and prolong the life of water storage facilities.

However, the concept of IWRM requires institutional strengthening and capacity at professional/managerial levels.

This article seeks to discuss the alignment of major National Water Policy (NWP) themes with IWRM narratives.

According to Pakistan’s Vision 2025, the freshwater resources availability of Pakistan has remained at almost the same level, for the most part, over the years.

Water demand is accelerating due to a rapid increase in population, the trend of industrialization, and emerging issues related to climate change.

Consequently, the gap between demand and supply is increasing continuously. The non-recognition of the economic value of water is another factor that encourages the unregulated use of precious freshwater resources.

Pakistan is among a group of countries that is moving from a water-stressed to a water-scarce scenario. Besides population growth, the sedimentation of the major water reservoirs, obsolescence of the hydraulic infrastructures, conventional cropping patterns, and lack of the relevant regulatory frameworks are all mainly responsible for water scarcity.

Additionally, the recurrent contamination of the water by means of the disposal of municipal and industrial effluents into freshwater resources, i.e., rivers, lakes, canals, and groundwater, limits the availability of freshwater.

Pakistan’s Vision 2025 aims to ensure the availability of a satisfactory water supply for agriculture, industry, and domestic users.

However, these policies are required to realize the balance between demand and supply in an IWRM context. The Vision envisages enhancing water storage capacity for up to 90 days, improving water use efficiency of the crops by 20 percent, and ensuring access to clean drinking water for all citizens of the country.

The National Water Policy (NWP) 2018 provides the principal guidelines for planners and developers regarding the water scarcity concerns of the country.

The policy document highlights the overall scenario regarding the limitations of freshwater availability and provides a comprehensive framework and guiding principles for action plans.

Keeping in consideration the current constitutional mechanism, the policy provides a roadmap of action plans at the national level, whereas it has been suggested that the provinces develop their own sustainable water management plans.

Water resources development is within the jurisdiction of the federal government; however, irrigated agriculture, domestic water supplies for the rural and urban population, and environmental and other water sector-related demands all lie within the domain of provincial governments.

Overall, the NWP describes policy narratives through 29 sections, covering the entire domain of the water resources sector.

As part of IWRM approaches, the NWP established guiding principles for the provinces to develop their projects and action plans towards efficient water management, focusing on water scheduling, reuse/recycling, ensuring food security, managing floods and drought, and coordinating regulation of groundwater use and institutional capacity-building to implement the existing legal instruments for the water sector appropriately.

IWRM approaches require multi-disciplinary knowledge and the vision of the stakeholders to develop the plan towards efficient, equitable, and sustainable solutions, to balance social and economic needs including the protection of ecosystems for future generations.

To achieve the targets of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), IWRM is being modified into a cross-sectoral water resource management nexus approach based on the principle that “water, energy and food are closely linked through global and local water, carbon and energy cycles or chains.”

The Government of Pakistan envisages the NWP 2018 as a comprehensive document, reflecting a transparent and coherent institutional framework.

However, the narratives of NWP are mostly structural rather than management-oriented. Indeed, the scenarios identified in the water policy debate are inclined towards the engineering and environmental narratives.

The NWP sets its strategic priorities on water conservation at each water consumer end, focusing on enhancement of water use efficiency, adaptation of resource conservation technologies, increase in the existing water storage capacity, and implementation of an effective regulatory framework.

The planning principles articulate: equity and participatory decision-making in water sector projects; provision of safe drinking water for all; and the ensuring of environmental sustainability.

IWRM approaches endorse the wisdom of NWP as social equity, economic efficiency, and ecological sustainability, which are the basic principles of the IWRM approaches.

The NWP defined the basin-level planning for the development of water resources by ensuring the sustainable environmental integrity of the basin through re-afforestation and soil conservation in the watersheds in line with the environmental protection measures proposed by IWRM.

On flooding control and infrastructure, the NWP proposes a mix of structural and non-structural measures for flood management.

A major portion of the investment is dedicated to hard infrastructure, whereas IWRM shifts the focus from flood control to flood management through non-structural measures. The IWRM defined the soft infrastructure, including measures such as improving the allocation mechanism and water equity for efficient water management.

The NWP prioritized the capacity-building of federal and provincial water institutions in line with the IWRM principles for efficient management of the water infrastructure and provision of services.

NWP also recognized the effective institutional support with legal cover for the implementation of the policy. As such, the National Water Council and Provincial Water Authorities were proposed at the federal and provincial levels respectively to update and implement the policies and regulatory frameworks.

NWP prioritized investments for the augmentation of surface storage and replacement of old infrastructures, whereas IWRM proposes investments for the modernization of infrastructure to improve service delivery and water use efficiency.

Moreover, the IWRM approaches propose volumetric water pricing for bulk users, partial relief for retail consumers, and substantial subsidies for the poor.

However, the NWP has framed the low water charges in the agriculture sector despite the fact that the economic value of water is of supreme concern in Pakistan.

The overall analysis of the NWP narratives is in close alignment with the IWRM narratives. However, in the current scenario, the priority of the actions/projects of the Water Sector in Pakistan typically reflects hard components/engineering solutions.

Soft components like capacity-building, institutional reforms, the updating of policy, preparation of laws and their implementation, mass awareness, and irrigation scheduling on the basis of actual crop water requirements, are all limited in terms of project priorities.

On the recommendation of the NWP 2018, the National Water Council (NWC) was established for planning, regulation, development, coordination and management, under the Chairmanship of the Prime Minister of Pakistan.

The Council reviews the Policy to identify gaps and document needs, which are expected to be updated in an appropriate forum over time.

Its initial meeting, held on 25th October 2018, placed an emphasis on adopting an integrated approach for conservation, storage, management and efficient utilization of available water resources.

The meeting was concluded with the recommendation that it was necessary to develop a comprehensive roadmap for the implementation of the NWP in consultation with provinces and other stakeholders.

Accordingly, the proposals were likely to be submitted for analysis to the Steering Committee on Water, headed by the Federal Minister for Water Resources and including representation from the provinces.

The Policy is the basic parameter document on water resources management in Pakistan, guided by the NWC and the Steering Committee for planning, regulations, development, coordination, and management in the water sector.

The need of the hour is a more proactive role by institutions engaging water professionals, to implement the recommendations of the water policy in line with the narratives of IWRM.

The writers are Zamir Ahmed Soomro, Water Resources Management Specialist, and Zeeshan Mustafa Maan, Groundwater Management Specialist, both at ADPC.

They can be reached at:

zamir.soomro@adpc.net

zeeshan.maan@adpc.net