Islamabad: Pakistan’s annual per capita water availability has declined by around 80 percent since independence, while more than half of the country’s population still lacks access to safely managed drinking water and investment needs in the water and sanitation sector continue to outstrip available resources, according to three United Nations reports launched in Islamabad on Tuesday.
The reports, released by UNESCO, the World Health Organization (WHO), UNICEF and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), paint a troubling picture of worsening water stress, inadequate sanitation coverage and shrinking financial capacity to address growing water challenges amid climate change and rapid population growth.
Federal Minister for Water Resources Mian Muhammad Mueen Wattoo said Pakistan’s annual freshwater availability has fallen dramatically over the past seven decades.
“At the time of independence, each Pakistani had access to more than 5,000 cubic metres of freshwater annually. Today, that figure has dropped below 1,000 cubic metres,” he said while addressing an event organized as part of the extended celebrations of World Water Day.
The UN World Water Development Report 2026 found that Pakistan continues to face major challenges in providing safe water and sanitation services to its population. According to estimates by WHO and UNICEF, around 55 percent of Pakistanis do not have access to safely managed drinking water services, while more than 58 percent of people living in rural areas lack safely managed sanitation facilities.
Globally, the report noted that 2.1 billion people still lack safely managed drinking water, 3.4 billion do not have access to safely managed sanitation services and 1.7 billion people remain without basic hygiene services at home.
The UN-Water Global Analysis and Assessment of Sanitation and Drinking-Water (GLAAS) 2025 report highlighted another growing concern: a widening gap between investment requirements and available funding for water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) services in Pakistan.
According to the report, the combined WASH budgets of Pakistan’s four provincial governments and the Islamabad Capital Territory increased from Rs225 billion in 2022 to Rs265 billion in 2024, representing an 18 percent nominal increase.
However, the report noted that persistent inflation effectively wiped out these gains, resulting in an estimated 20 percent decline in real-term spending power during the same period.
The assessment found that while investment deficits in rural areas have improved somewhat since 2021-22, the funding gap in urban areas has widened as growing populations place additional pressure on already strained water and sanitation infrastructure.
The reports also underscored the disproportionate impact of water scarcity on women and girls. Globally, women and girls spend an estimated 250 million hours every day collecting water, more than three times the time spent by men and boys on the same task.
United Nations Resident Coordinator in Pakistan Mohamed Yahya said sustainable solutions must be rooted in local realities and community participation.
“Water solutions should be inclusive, practical and embedded in local knowledge,” he said.
During the event, UNESCO and the Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resources (PCRWR) also launched the “Guidelines for Science Policy Practice Interface for Achieving Water Security in Pakistan”, aimed at strengthening links between scientific research, policymaking and implementation.
The launch was followed by a high-level roundtable and expert panel involving representatives from UNESCO, WHO, UNICEF, UNDP, academia, research institutions and government agencies. Participants emphasized the need for stronger science-based policymaking, climate-resilient water management, improved governance, enhanced institutional coordination and greater participation of women in water-related decision-making.
Experts warned that without sustained investments and urgent reforms, Pakistan’s shrinking water resources, expanding urban population and increasing climate pressures could further undermine water security and public health outcomes in the years ahead.
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