ISLAMABAD – The Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) on Sunday said our country is more concerned about dams being built by a neighbouring country and less concerned about building dams itself.
All the efforts to stop other countries from building dams have remained futile as international institutions and the world community is not supporting our stance, it said.
We should stop our efforts on the external front and focus attention on the internal front to ensure availability of water to save Pakistan, said Ghazanfar Bilour, president of the FPCCI.
He said that small dams should be built on war footing across the country as mega projects attract controversies which are against the national interests.
Moreover, Pakistan continues to waste thirty million acre-foot or ten trillion gallons of water per annum which can be used to quench the thirst of masses while revolutionising the agricultural and industrial sectors, he added.
He said that water is not scarce in the country but its conservation has been ignored for decades. Egypt has the capacity to store water enough for 1000 days while Israel having its 60 percent area as the desert is exporting water while Pakistan can store water for thirty days.
Ninety percent of water is utilised by the agricultural sector in Pakistan but budget allocated for agricultural research is mere 0.18 percent of the GDP which is not enough, he noted.
The president of the Apex chamber said that Pakistan is among the country topping list of wasting water, having lowest per acre yield and high use of urea and pesticides which must be reversed.
Many countries have employed technologies reducing water usage for the agricultural purpose from 90 to 99 percent but we continue to water it mercilessly. He said that a little but effective water tax can discourage the wastage to trigger conservation.
