Coronavirus drives up water use in Lahore by nearly 10%

Water use has increased by nearly 10 per cent in Lahore since the outbreak of the coronavirus in February, say government officials.

Previously, Lahore, Pakistan’s second most populous city, was using 640 million gallons of water per month. “But in the last one and half month, the usage has gone up to 700 million gallons,” Imtiaz Mujtaba Ghouri, the public relations officer at the state-run Water and Sanitation Agency (WASA) told Geo.tv.

Ever since Pakistan imposed a nationwide lockdown in March and the government-mandated work-from-home system came in effect, the provincial and federal governments have been rolling out public information campaigns advising people to wash their hands frequently, for at least 20-seconds, to guard against the deadly virus.

Lahore, the city of over 11 million, was already witnessing a one meter annual drop in its ground water, says Ghouri. The situation could be further aggravated if the outbreak continues for a few more months. “We are now thinking on the lines of using surface water, like from the Bambanwala-Ravi-Bedian Canal (BRB) to meet the city’s water requirement,” he added.

Pakistan is a water scarce country. Reports by the United Nations Development Programme and the Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resources (PCRWR) warn that the country could run dry by 2025.

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After the pandemic struck water use has risen across the country, not just in Lahore, say officials at the government-run Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resources (PCRWR). However, there is no exact data on the total increase in water utilization, as no study has been conducted as yet.

But as the country-wide lockdown is eased and more industrial sectors open up, the water demand could further spike.

On April 14, Prime Minister Imran Khan extended the lockdown in the country by two weeks till April 30, but allowed some sectors and industries, such as the construction industry, to start operations after being shut for three-weeks.

“If you look at the larger picture, after the closure of the industrial sector and restaurants, water use had decreased in Pakistan,” said Dr Muhammad Ashraf, chairman PCRWR. The surge, he added, was only in the domestic usage.

But household and industrial use only make up 4-5 percent of the total water utilization in the country, Ashraf explained. “The bulk, around 93 per cent, is still used by the agriculture sector, where there was no changes in water usage, even during the lockdown.”

For now, the provincial and federal governments are looking to launch information campaigns advising people to save water by turning off the tap when applying soap. “We hope people are listening and don’t waste our precious ground water,” says Ghouri.