Pakistan extracts 65 cubic kilometers of groundwater every year, surpassing the country's natural recharge rate of 55 cubic kilometers. The nation ranks as the world's fourth-largest user of groundwater and possesses the second-most overstressed aquifer system globally.
Groundwater provides nearly 60 percent of irrigation and more than 70 percent of drinking water for the population. Between 70 and 80 percent of the nation's groundwater is unfit for human consumption.
Dangerous levels of arsenic pose a health threat to as many as 60 million people. Salinity currently renders 21 percent of irrigated land unusable.
Pakistan holds an underground storage capacity comparable to approximately 50 large dams. Punjab accounts for roughly 90 percent of the total groundwater extracted across the country.
Water tables in Karachi, Quetta, and Lahore are dropping by one to three feet every year. The country is the largest global exporter of depleted groundwater contained within agricultural products.
Pakistan represents 29 percent of global trade in goods manufactured using overabstracted aquifers. The Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE) recommends universal licensing and metering of all extraction points within the next two years.
PIDE suggests overhauling water pricing to reflect actual scarcity as a medium-term reform over the next two to five years. Long-term transformations beyond five years require the Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE) to call for untying archaic colonial water rights from land ownership.
