Water Expert Urges Climate-resilient Planning In Pakistan

ISLAMABAD, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 7th May, 2026) Dr Mohsin Hafeez, Global Director for Water, food and Ecosystems at the International Water Management Institute, has called for an urgent shift from ad-hoc water management to evidence-based and climate-resilient planning in Pakistan.

He was virtually addressing the second edition of the two-day Breathe Pakistan International Climate Change Conference, organised by DawnMedia, held in Islamabad.

“We do not have proper long-term planning. The tools are available that can tell us how much water is available, where the water is, and how it is being used,” he said.

Highlighting groundwater as one of the country’s most pressing challenges, he noted that the resource was still not properly accounted for within the existing water management system.

According to him, incomplete and scattered information was forcing authorities to depend on short-term planning cycles lasting only a few months.

Dr Hafeez stressed the need for scientific planning in the irrigation sector, warning that water-intensive crops such as rice and sugarcane were being cultivated in arid regions where they were not environmentally suitable.

“We should stop growing crops in regions that are not suitable for them and instead follow proper agricultural zoning,” he said.

He also called for improved management of the irrigation system and urged authorities to update the water accounting and distribution framework in line with actual annual water availability.

Discussing technological solutions, Dr Hafeez said Pakistan must make better use of satellite data, remote sensing, artificial intelligence, citizen science and biophysical data to improve water governance.

He said the International Water Management Institute(IWMI) had been working on digital twin models in river basins to monitor water availability, demand and usage in real time.

“These kinds of models, combined with AI tools and validation systems, can help us move towards better planning,” he said.

He further emphasised the importance of adopting a system-level approach to water management rather than limiting planning to provincial or district boundaries.

“Water is a connected system. Deforestation in upstream areas directly impacts downstream regions. We cannot manage water only through geographic boundaries,” he observed.

Dr Hafeez said the institute had developed several digital tools, including Pakistan’s water body inventory, and suggested integrating this information with glacier monitoring systems for more comprehensive planning.

On groundwater management, he said efforts were underway in Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Sindh and Balochistan to develop systems for monitoring groundwater availability and usage.

He revealed that around 1.365 million groundwater users had been geotagged in Punjab, while similar initiatives had also begun in Sindh and as pilot projects in Balochistan.

Calling for improved hydrological modelling and integrated planning, Dr Hafeez said water management should be treated as a national issue involving political, social and environmental dimensions.

“We need open data sharing, proper quality checks, and systems that allow data to support decision-making,” he said.

Concluding his address, Dr Hafeez urged policymakers to adopt climate-resilient strategies and move away from the “ad-hoc approach” currently being followed if Pakistan wanted to secure its water future over the next 50 years.

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