ISLAMABAD: Adviser to the Prime Minister/ Federal Minister on Climate Change, Malik Amin Aslam has said that the ground water depletion is the outcome of the misplaced priorities and policies of the previous governments.
Chairing a meeting on Recharge Pakistan and ground water depletion in Ministry of Climate Change on Thursday, Malik Amin Aslam said that the incumbent government has kicked off a national policy initiative of the Recharge Pakistan to boost groundwater recharge through enhanced conservation, water harvesting in all forms including rainwater harvesting, reducing groundwater mining for all purposes through coordinated efforts with provincial governments.
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He said that the ground water recharge with the name of ‘Recharge Pakistan’ is one of the five components of present government’s vision of Clean Green Pakistan. By the help of partners, flood water and rain water will be used to recharge underground aquifers. He said that their government would protect and recharge 4th largest freshwater aquifers of the world for the
future generations.
On the occasion, Pakistan Council for Research and Water Recharge (PCRWR) presented its findings in a presentation. Representatives of PCRWR told that they had established their offices all across the country having 7 regional and 18 sub-regional offices. Organization told that they were conducting their work keeping in mind Pakistan Water Vision 2025, Sustainable Development Goals, National Water Policy 2018 and National Water Research Agenda 2016-2025.
Minister was told that Pakistan’s fresh water was fast depleting because of unregulated pumping. 93% of pumped water was being used for agricultural purposes while 90% of the drinking water and almost all the industrial water was being extracted from ground sources. Pakistan’s 40% of cultivable land was Barani land while government’s policies towards arid agriculture had further aggravated the situation.
Malik Amin Aslam advised the organisation to come up with solution especially for water management, rainwater harvesting and improving water quality. Organisation informed the adviser that they had done a laborious job in developing fresh water maps for the whole country at the depth of 1-50 meters and 51-100 meters. They also apprised that they were using
NASA’s technology called GRACE for this purpose. By the use of said technology real time monitoring of the underground fresh water aquifers was possible.
The Federal Minister was also apprised about water recharge technology and fresh water skimming technology for water pumping. Heavy pumping of water in Indian Punjab, environmental flows and pollutants in Indian controlled rivers also came under discussion.
Malik Amin said that his government was already working with Chinese government under CPEC for ground water recharge and working group was already in place. He said that WWF was also facilitating government of Pakistan in a similar project. He asked scientists of PCRWR to come up with a comprehensive plan how and where to recharge ground reserves.
INP/SB/AK
