Climate Change & Water Scarcity: Dilemma in Sindh

There is a deep connection between them. We aren’t unaware of these words because nowadays they both are popular yet important things. Pakistan is blessed with the Indus River. This is an asset for Pakistan, but still, Pakistan is suffering from water scarcity due to climate change. Climate change blesses Pakistan with water insecurity. Water insecurity means a deficiency in the availability and access to adequate, safe, and clean water. We do have water, but it is dirty and salty. Our people do use this water, which gives them numerous diseases. Access to water is humans most important priority because it is important for their physical, mental, and emotional health, as this helps them perform all their basic daily tasks. Living things, including animals and plants, are negatively impacted by water insecurity. This impact ranges from small illnesses to wide-spread social and political unrest. Stunted growth in children and caused the epidemic as a whole. Climate change leads to water scarcity, which leads to water insecurity, which affects the economy and the health of the population. This is a vicious cycle of climate change that not only affects human life but also all living things as a whole.
Pakistan’s economy is based on agriculture, and due to water insecurity, the production of crops is affected a lot, which leads to debt. Farmers, on the other hand, aren’t aware of or are not able to use hybrid seeds. They always opt for the traditional method of farming, which makes them use a lot of water. Climate change causes heavy rains and floods,  due to which the majority of the crops are affected and won’t be able to provide revenue to Pakistan. Industries use to drain their products into nearby fresh water, which adds to the overall water availability problem. Experts estimate that 7 acres of great water are lost to the sea annually. Which means I have a lot of water, but the salty one. Additionally, Pakistan’s dams can store water for 30 days, whereas Pakistan must have huge dams to store huge amounts of fresh water that can be stored from heavy rains. This heavy rainwater mixed with unclean water and became the reason for spreading water-borne disease. The government should take the lead and work on water scarcity because the above-mentioned reasons can be solved with human ideas and a systematic approach to resolving the issue.
The South Asian nation would experience complete water scarcity by 2025, according to reports from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resources (PCRWR). Pakistan is getting close to the point at which water is scarce. What’s worse is that groundwater reserves, which are the last line of defense for water supply, are being rapidly depleted. In Pakistan, the highest in Asia, baby mortality from water-related diarrhea accounts for 60% of all deaths, according to research from the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Every year in Pakistan, 53000 kids pass away from diarrhea brought on by tainted water.Pumps pull more deeply where there is a naturally higher concentration of arsenic because the water table is continually falling. The largest mass poisoning in history might affect 60 million people in Pakistan, where drinking water contains dangerously high amounts of arsenic. Already, Pakistan has a huge social, environmental, and economic development issue as a result of water insecurity. Floods and droughts brought on by climate change in recent years have highlighted the need to implement climate-resilient solutions for better water governance at all levels. Water was quite easy to come by in Pakistan. Pakistan became water-stressed in 2000, and by 2035, it’s expected that Pakistan will be water-scarce. Furthermore, even people who have access to a sufficient diet may experience malnutrition because diarrheal illnesses brought on by waterborne infections and inadequate cleanliness prevent nutrients from being absorbed. This indicates that COVID-19 will spread more quickly and that its lethality may be increased in areas where handwashing is infrequent and where waterborne sickness is already well-known. The vicious spiral of climate change should be broken by human efforts; otherwise, we won’t be able to live a normal life and will crave every drop of water for the rest of our lives.
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