Quetta going dry, faces intense shortage of water

QUETTA: Pakistan’s southwestern city, Quetta, the provincial capital of Balochistan is going dry due to dry weather for last five months and lowering graph of ground level water.

Recently, the Pakistan Metrological Department warned that nine cities in Balochistan including Quetta, Dalbandin, Nok Kundi, Gwadar, Panjgur, Pasni, Ormara, Turbat and Jiwani are at risk of drought because they didn’t receive enough rainfall.

Several localities of the city are water stressed while a number of the city areas are facing intense shortage of the water.

The city didn’t receive rain since May resulting in more use of ground level water through boring and tubewells. According to some estimates the increasing usage of ground water was resulting in lower of the water level by 30 to 50 feet.

This, coupled with the bloating population, is putting even more pressure on the city’s fragile ecosystem.

More than three million people live in Quetta. The problem is that the city only has facilities for 250,000 people. It needs around 50 million gallons of water a day but only gets 30 million gallons.

Moderate to severe drought-like conditions have emerged in the southern parts of Pakistan, where 70 and 46 per cent less than normal rains were received during May and August.

Proper and prompt steps and efficient water usage is needed to deal with the drought like situation and scarcity of water in Quetta and other areas hit by the unavailablity of water.