Chairman of National Business Group Pakistan, President Pakistan Businessmen and Intellectuals Forum, and All Karachi Industrial Alliance, and former provincial minister Mian Zahid Hussain on Wednesday said the country is facing a serious water crisis which can transform Pakistan into a desert.

If the issue was not resolved the country may face absolute scarcity within years hitting masses and damaging agricultural as well as industrial production, he said.

Mian Zahid Hussain said that per capita availability has eroded by over 400 percent since independence which has put the future of the country at stake.

Talking to the business community, the veteran business leader said that per capita water availability was 5600 cubic meters in 1947 which is now 1000 cubic meters which is threatening world’s fifth most populous country in the world.

Water scarcity is reducing agriculture output damaging food security and burdening resources as Pakistan has become a net food importer.

He said that Pakistan is included in top ten countries where a large portion of the population lack access to clean drinking water which is the reason behind rising infant mortality and other disease.

Pakistan is third among countries facing water dearth because of wastage, theft, skewed distribution, old infrastructure, and wastage of 20 million acre-feet of water worth 20 billion dollars per annum.

Crops that need too much water should be discouraged while rural population should be educated as wastage of water is rampant in rural areas as compared to urban centers.

The business leader noted that almost half of the required water is extracted from the ground resulting in a threat to water and food security.

Groundwater table continues to go down leaving behind many tube wells dry as there is no system of monitoring and controlling the extraction of groundwater and there is no information about it.