President Dr Arif Alvi has said that Pakistan needs to employ smarter and less water-intensive practices, such as drip and spray irrigation, for agriculture to avert the looming crisis of water shortage.

The agriculture sector, he said, consumed approximately 95 percent of the country’s water which, according to him, needed immediate planning and reforms on water use efficiency.

In a video-link address to an international conference titled, “Transformative Pathways for Water and Food Systems in a Climate Resilient Pakistan” held in Karachi on Wednesday, the president said the country needed effective management to secure its existing water resources.

International and local water experts attended the event which was organised by the International Water Management Institute (IWMI), Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resources (PCRWR), Ministry of National Food Security and Research, Ministry of Water Resources, Ministry of Climate Change and the Unicef.

President Alvi said that Pakistan ranked among the top 10 countries worldwide most affected by climate change and natural disasters.

He pointed out that water crisis being faced by Pakistan was one of the most pressing challenges, aggravated due to rapid population growth, urbanisation, industrialisation, depletion of water resources, environmental deterioration, climate change and irrational human behaviour.

The president emphasised research and technological innovation to promote modern agricultural technologies at the grassroots level. He said there was a need to educate farmers about water conservation, rain-water harvesting and aquifer technologies.

The president observed that community involvement and implementation of laws could prove helpful in effective water management.

Dr Alvi mentioned that Pakistan’s farmers were dependent on conventional methods of flood irrigation that wasted water while the world practiced drip and spray irrigation and recycling of water.

Crop substitution, he said, could make a difference if farmers chose crops that were less expensive on water.

He proposed research on using rice grain which grew on less water and produced high yield. “We should adopt the technology that can handle the water scarcity and improve food sustainability.”

The president referred to the example of The Netherlands, which is 19 times smaller than Pakistan in land mass, but is the second-largest exporter of food products. With water conservation, vertical farming, planet control farming and hydroponic farming, a small country could produce more yield per acre, he added.

Dr Alvi stressed attitudinal change to adopt the ways of water usage which were inexpensive and technically better.

The president said that besides the external Indus water treaty with India, Pakistan had an internal provincial water distribution arrangement that needed improvement.

“We have to improve the telemetry system and develop a confidence-building system among provinces on judicious use of water,” he said, while adding that satellite telemetry could be used to know the actual water flow towards the provinces.

The president said Pakistan was endowed with 158 million acre-feet of water per annum and the tube wells in Punjab supplied 12 million acre-feet of the commodity.

He pointed out that water pumping had affected the levels of aquifer, and stressed the need for modes to recharge the traditional aquifers to avoid its depletion.

“A whole-of-the-society approach is needed to be adopted right from childhood on caring for the environment. Pakistan needs both mitigation and adaptation as important tools to increase water storage to meet its needs.”

The president also emphasised an effective drainage system to avoid the discharge of industrial waste into the seas.

Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resources Director General Dr Hifza Rasheed, Dr Bunyod Homatov and Dr Juan Carlos Sanchez Ramirez from the International Water Management Institute, Dr Stephen Davies from the International Food Policy Research Institute and Dr Neil Lazarow from the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research also spoke on the occasion.