You guys all know about Balochistan, right?
We know it’s our largest province
And we know it’s rich in culture
I mean, we may not focus a lot on how it’s holding up, but hey – it’s there, right?
Well, I’m not sure if not focusing on Balochistan is pretty wise, tbh. Why? Because climatically, it’s not doing too well. According to a recent report in Dawn.com, Balochistan is pretty much a barren desert now.
In fact, Dr. Ainuddin, the chairperson of the Disaster Management Department at the University of Balochistan, clearly went on to state that half of Balochistan is gripped by a drought and famine.
Both, the drought and the famine have a few causative factors. Here are a few of them:
- There hasn’t been a lot of rainfall (176 mm annually.)
- Deep well pumping has led to decreased groundwater levels.
- The Western areas of the province sometimes receive less than 50 mm of rainfall.
- Water shortage has increased to 60 percent in the province.
- The water level is decreasing in Quetta by three-and-a-half feet every year.
- The decreasing water levels are due to deep-dug tube wells.
Moreover, Balochistan’s ancient water supply has also either dried up or been destroyed.
The water supply system was based on the karezaat. Out of the 1384 karezaat that were present, only 100 remain functional now.
The construction of dams, however, might help save the 8.57 billion cubic metres of water out of around 10.693 billion cubic metres that are being wasted every year.
Very few dams have been built by the government. This leads to unnecessary wastage of water we desperately need to be saving.
Tariq Zehri, the director general of the Environment Protection Authority in Balochistan, agrees with the fact that climate change has a role to play in this.
Moreover, Bashir Agha, the superintending engineer of the Agriculture Department fears that if the situation continues, a large-scale migration will be inevitable.
The warning signs are all there. And they have been for a while now. Perhaps we need to take them more seriously because it seems like we’re continuously running out of time to act. What do you think about this? Have something to add? Let us know below in the comments.
Cover image via: Daily Balochistan Express/Nadir Jailani