Pakistan’s water management sector simultaneously faces the immediate and dual risks of frequent floods and water scarcity. Climate change is further stressing the fragile water balance due to unpredictable variations in the intensity and frequency of rainfall and runoff. As discussed below, hill torrents, urban groundwater recharge, and rural water storage are three critically-important yet under-resourced areas of work.
Governance is an integral element that underpins these three water sector challenges. Literature review shows that the “the real bottlenecks often are related to governance challenges such as narrow mandates and capacities of main organizations, ineffective operational procedures besides institutional fragmentation, lack of systematic planning and inadequate financial systems.” The absence of locally-led inclusive and robust policy and implementation mechanisms, lack of systemic coordination among key stakeholders, limited and unreliable data, inadequate water service delivery and financial unsustainability of water systems are some of the major causes that lead to mismanagement of flood water.
