A growing environmental crisis threatens Pakistan’s freshwater resources, experts warned at a recent event titled “Building Water-Sensitive Communities: Collaborative Solutions for Freshwater Sustainability.”
WWF’s Freshwater Programme’s Senior Director Dr Masood Arshad highlighted the severe and unregulated over-extraction of groundwater as a major driver of ecological degradation across key ecosystems, including the Indus River, Keenjhar Lake, and the Ravi River.
Dr Arshad emphasised urgent need for a nature-positive approach to restore and protect freshwater ecosystems. “Water scarcity is no longer a future concern but a crisis we are living through,” he said.
Other speakers at the event echoed this warning, pointing out that nearly half of the global population could be living in water-stressed river basins by 2030 if current trends continue.
Pakistan is already witnessing a steep decline in groundwater levels and heightened vulnerability to climate shocks, with the 2022 monsoon floods serving as a stark reminder of the consequences, having submerged a third of the country and displaced millions.
The event marked the launch of a five-year World Wildlife Fund-Pakistan project, supported by a global biopharmaceutical company, aimed at promoting sustainable water practices and building resilience in vulnerable communities.
