Water is very important for human beings and for the human body as well. In the human body, more than 70% are fluid such as blood and all these fluid are basically formed by water. Bone marrow needs water to generate blood then blood carries the oxygen from the lung to the whole body. Besides, that water can maintain human body temperature and provide natural material with minerals. Water is not only essential for the human body, but it is also playing an important role in our daily life activities, for example; washing clothes and food, bathing for personal hygiene, and acting as a solvent for all cleaning reagents.
We can say water is the key to a person’s survival because without water survival is simply not an option. Water is one of the most important resources in our life and it is the Earth’s natural resources as well. Earth has only one percent of the dry area where we live and the rest of the three percent based on water. The division of that one percent is placed in different forms. About 97% of the water stored in the ocean is saltwater. Only 3% of the world’s water supply is freshwater where two-third out of the 3% of that water is frozen, forming the polar ice caps and icebergs. The remaining one-third percent is available as either surface water or groundwater; groundwater accounts for water that is visible above the ground surface such as rivers, ponds, and lakes. Groundwater is water that either fills the spaces between soil particles or penetrates the cracks and spaces within rocks.
In the case of Pakistan, natural resources of water are rainfall is markedly variable in magnitude, time of occurrence, and arriel distribution. Glacier is another source of water that contains some of the largest glaciers in the world. Rivers like the Kabul river, Jhelum river in Kashmir at a much lower elevation than the sources of the Indus river and the Chenab river. Dams are the other source of water. The history of dams in Pakistan is relatively short. Before independence, there were only three dams in Pakistan. Two of the dams were in the water-scarce area of Balochistan, i.e The Khushdil Khan dam-1890 and the Spin Karaiz-1945. The Namal dam-1913 was located in the Mianwali district of Punjab.
The construction of dams in Pakistan was initiated in 1955 when the country was facing an acute power shortage work on the Warsak dam on the Kabul river near Peshawar was undertaken. Later, when India stopped the water supplies to the network of canals in Pakistan, it
became imperative to build large storages and link the canals to restore water to the affected canal system. This resulted in the two largest plains of the dam. Mangla with a gross storage capacity of 5.88 (MAF) and Terbella with 11.62 (MAF) which are unfortunately still uncompleted projects.
But, now the current condition of water in Pakistan is more serious than past. According to the research by the American university, Pakistan is among the top ten countries in the world which are suffering from a water crisis. It is not so easy to handle this shortage. It is necessary that the Kalabagh dam must be completed as early as it is possible. According to the latest report, 40 million acre-feet (MAF) of water is draining into the sea due to the poor storage system. Kalabagh dam has the capacity to store 6.4 (MAF) of water. That is maybe helpful to overcome the problem of the coming water crisis in Pakistan.
Water is the source of life, where is no water there is no life. Being a part of society we should think and observe the facts of our society. And in order to be prepared for the coming storm, we should start with ourselves first. Do not waste water in your cooking, bathing, and washing only use the required amount of water. The nations who have to face the calamities must have the ability to eat a half flatbread if they have a full one today, for the security of tomorrow.
The Importance of Water
