Stakeholders seek 20pc strategic water funding in FY 2026-27 budgets

Cautioning that acute water insecurity now directly threatens national survival, stakeholders from across country have urged the federal and provincial governments to treat the water sector as a strategic priority by allocating at least 20 percent of total development spending under the federal PSDP (Public Sector Development Programme) and provincial ADPs (Annual Development Plans) in the upcoming FY 2026-27 budgets

LAHORE, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 18th May, 2026) Cautioning that acute water insecurity now directly threatens national survival, stakeholders from across country have urged the federal and provincial governments to treat the water sector as a strategic priority by allocating at least 20 percent of total development spending under the federal PSDP (Public Sector Development Programme) and provincial ADPs (Annual Development Plans) in the upcoming FY 2026-27 budgets.

Stakeholders including Mohsin Leghari, who hails from DG Khan, Hassan Ali Chanihu, Sanghar (Sindh), Farooq Bajwa, Sialkot, North Punjab, Muhammad Ehsan, Lachi, Kohat, South KPK, Zeeshanul Rab Karachi, Agha Nasir, Quetta, Ayub Mayo, Lahore and Mubashar Choudhry, Layyah issued a joint statement on Monday arguing that continued under-investment in water infrastructure poses an immediate threat to the nation's food security, energy stability, public health, and long-term economic sustainability.

This urgent demand is driven by intensifying climate stress, declining storage capacity, and rising upstream trans-boundary uncertainties which are placing unprecedented pressure on the national water system.

The stakeholders, including experts, public representative and farmers, highlighted a low funding for water sector, noting that the FY 2025-26 federal PSDP allocated Rs 133.4 billion to the Water Resources Division, which represents a 13 percent of the total Rs 01 trillion development envelope and a stark 27 percent decline from the Rs 184.6 billion allocated the previous year. To fix this fiscal mismatch, they urged the government to raise federal water-sector allocations to at least Rs 200 billion for FY 2026-27, alongside similar increases in provincial ADPs by the provincial governments.

The critical nature of this crisis is corroborated by official regulatory bodies, with the State Bank of Pakistan previously reporting that the country's major reservoirs—Tarbela, Mangla, and Chashma—store water equivalent to barely 30 days of national requirements against an international benchmark of 120 days, while the Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resources (PCRWR) has cautioned that Pakistan has crossed into water scarcity.

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To remedy this low carry-over storage capacity, stakeholders emphasized that the timely completion of eight ongoing strategic projects—including the Diamer-Bhasha Dam, Mohmand Dam, Dasu Hydropower Project, Tarbela Fifth Extension, Kurram Tangi Dam, Nai Gaj Dam, Kachhi Canal, and the K-IV Water Supply Project—is absolutely mandatory. They noted that the Diamer-Bhasha Dam alone would add 8.1 MAF of gross storage and generate 4,500 MW of low-cost hydel electricity, adding that further funding delays will trigger massive project cost overruns and deepen future water and energy shortages.

Furthermore, expanding the national storage capacity is vital to ensure reliable canal supplies during the critical late Rabi and early Kharif agricultural periods, while also enabling necessary environmental water releases below Kotri across different seasons to protect the Indus Delta from seawater intrusion and ecological degradation. Alongside major federal initiatives for the Indus Basin system, the stakeholders stressed that the provincial governments of Balochistan, Sindh, Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Azad Jammu & Kashmir, and Gilgit-Baltistan must simultaneously accelerate investments in small and medium dams, groundwater recharge, canal lining, watercourse improvement, ponds cementing, and urban drinking-water infrastructure as part of a comprehensive climate resilience strategy.

Finally, the stakeholders labeled the urban water crisis as equally alarming, citing PCRWR assessments that between 70 and 80 percent of supplied water in Pakistan is unsafe for human consumption. They particularly highlighted the urgent need to resolve funding and implementation bottlenecks stalling the K-IV Bulk Water Supply Scheme for Karachi, while demanding similar interventions across all other provincial capitals and major cities.

The stakeholders concluded that water can no longer be treated as a secondary development sector, stating that the FY 2026-27 budgets must mark a permanent shift in national priorities because delaying investment today will produce far greater economic, social, agricultural, energy, and public health costs tomorrow.