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Title:

“The causes of water Crises in Quetta”

Introduction:

Brahma Chellanay writes, “Yesterday, nations went to war on land. Today, our
conflicts involve energy. And tomorrow, the battles would be on water”. Quetta
is the capital of Baluchistan. It is also known as Pakistan’s fruit basket.
Unfortunately, from the past few years, the region has facing the serious issue
of water scarcity, let me mention, as the Hanna Lake and many other reservoirs
have touched dead level. It is shocking that Quetta has an acute water shortage
and recently, noted that the underground water has dropped to 15000 feet and
expected more that it will decrease further. This has forced many orchards
owners to cut their fruit and trees and promoted deforestation here for the lack
of rain. The population of Quetta is round about 3.3 million people is facing
water shortage and the public is bound to buy water through tankers, the costs
of per trip 1,200 rupees.[ CITATION Muh18 \l 1033 ] Secondary, this has also effected
under construction projects. The main reason is that the water is not stored and
mostly it is used carelessly.

Inayat Ullah, a Pakhtun daily wage worker, was forced to shift home in search
of [ CITATION Muh18 \l 1033 ] water (and gas). He was living in Pashtunabad, in the
east of the city, where gas and water were in short supply. He shifted to Pashtun
Bagh, in Quetta’s west, in 2005 but continues to “face similar problems.

Even in the heart of the city, people complain about water not being available.
Fasial Shehzad, a Punjabi settler living on Mission Road – a pre-1947 avenue –
says his household became dependent on private tanker operators long ago.
Quetta was designed for about 200,000 people after an earthquake flattened it in
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1935. Now, according to its mayor, Dr Kaleem Ullah, its population could be as

much as three million.

Barkat Ullah, project director for Mangi Dam, a water supply scheme being
planned for Quetta, says the city needs 50 million gallons of water per day but
gets only 28 million gallons. This gap is expected to get bigger before it can
decrease.[ CITATION Not18 \l 1033 ]

Managing Director of Wasa, Ahmend Jahangir Khan Kakar accepts that “there
is a leakage in pipelines”. And also acknowledges the flaws in Wasa’s working.
He also says that we have lack of human resources and funds. Even Wasa did
not have enough money to pay its staff.

Many thousand tube wells, in fact, have been installed without the NOC. A
recent report in daily Dawn quoted an official of the Quetta Electric Supply
Company as saying that “more than 15,000 illegal tube wells operate throughout
Baluchistan”. By 2015, Wasa had sealed more than 300 tube wells working
without the NOC in different parts of Quetta.[ CITATION Wat18 \l 1033 ]

“According to the research that the Quetta is going to face the serious issue of
water scarcity in the near future. The findings show that the water level has
reached to worrying in the selected area, due to the support on electrical tube
wells, indiscriminate installation of tube wells, violation of tube wells spacing
norms, growing of high delta crops, population growth, and poor drought
management. This affects the people of the area in terms of decline in Kareze
irrigation system, depletion of groundwater level, failing health conditions, and
uncalled migration from the area”.[ CITATION Zai18 \l 1033 ]

A rapid increase in population, extensive urbanization and arrival of migrants

after Afghan war have caused the people of Quetta suffer from severe water
scarcity. On the other hand, government seems inactive in making policies to
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resolve this grave issue. “Unchecked installation of Tube Wells in Quetta is

causing rapid decline in the water table of Quetta valley,” Said Dr. Muhammad
Tahir Deputy Director of Pakistan Metrological Department. He told
Baluchistan Voices that on one hand there is reduction in frequency of rainfalls
due to global warming and at the same time a weak water extraction regime is
dangerously depleting water resources of Quetta.[ CITATION Yah18 \l 1033 ]

Conclusion:

Water is a life and no one can live without it. Finally, after all these statements
we agree that the depletion is mostly caused by private tube wells. More than
10,000 are installed in Quetta valley. The government provided free electricity
for those tube wells to support agriculture in Baluchistan but their owners sell
water to tanker operators. The report is also mentioning some other causes of
water scarcity in Quetta such as, increase in population, extensive urbanization,
the arrival of migrants, the linkage of pipelines and lack of rain and also the lack
of proper strategy of the government of Baluchistan. We suggest, that the
Government must ensure that no new tube wells are installed in Quetta without
permission and existing ones should also be regulated. The people of Quetta
request to the newly elected government to urgently address the crisis and
ensure pure water supply.

References
Hasham, M. (2018). Tube Wells. Quetta: Monthly Chiltan Quetta.

Muhammad, N. (2018). No end to water crises in Quetta. 15.

Reki, Y. (2018). Water Scarcity in Quetta . Quetta: Balochistan.

(2018). Water scarcity in Quetta. Quetta : Daily Dawn .

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Zainuddin Kakar, S. M. (2018). Scarcity of Water Resources in Rural Area of Quetta. IOP , 20.