02-05 Pakistan

Anyone want to buy a water truck. It is big business, or shall we call it mafia business, in Pakistan. Criminal groups steal the water and then sell it from water tankers to people in urban areas that are water scarce. For many, the weekly visit from the water truck is their only source of drinking water.
According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) there are 36 water scarce nations in the world. And they rank Pakistan in 3rd spot. It is a problem that is going to get worse because Pakistan seems to be a nation that does not govern itself well.
Starting with climate change, we have traditional sources of water from melting glaciers and river systems drying up. Scary photograph.
And then we have a nation focused on agriculture that is water-intensive, like rice, wheat and sugarcane. According to reports, Pakistan does not use water efficiently and its irrigation systems are not ready for a world of water scarcity.
They need to introduce drip water irrigation pioneered by Israel. It’s a technology that is sweeping the world. Water is fed to plants by hoses a drip at a time.
Then we are dealing with a nation of 220 million with a growing population. More people, more agriculture, more water.
Can we imagine going shopping and then having to buy a cup of water to get a needed drink. Welcome to Pakistan.
A water stressed nation is a nation under political stress. At some stage people’s thirst becomes people’s anger. And a nation can quickly become ungovernable. Solutions to water scarcity are not quick fixes. So it is hard to look at Pakistan and not predict a future of political uncertainty.
Today Pakistan is not unlike Sri Lanka, which has taken so much money from China they have become a Chinese colony. Not sure I would want to be politically aligned with a nation that cannot see a water crisis in its future.