The unavailability of water in Pakistan is not just a statistic. It is a daily struggle for millions.
In the Thar Desert alone, more than 17 million people face extreme water scarcity, and over 80% of households rely on contaminated sources for drinking water (UNICEF, 2024).
When you visit Thar, the crisis becomes real. The land is dry, the wells are deep, and children walk miles under the burning sun with clay pots in their hands. Water isn’t just limited; it’s almost unreachable.
At Ek Plate Biryani, we’ve seen this crisis up close. Every visit reminds us that life here depends on a few drops of clean water.
This is not just a water crisis; it’s a human crisis.
Causes of Water Unavailability in Pakistan
1. Climate Change and Droughts
The unavailability of water in Pakistan is closely linked to changing climate patterns. Rising temperatures have intensified evaporation from rivers, lakes, and soil. In regions like Sindh and Balochistan, rainfall has become unpredictable — sometimes vanishing for months.
The Thar Desert faces the harshest impact. Long dry spells stretch across seasons, leaving the land cracked and barren. Wells dry up, crops fail, and families wait helplessly for rain that often never comes. Each year, drought claims livestock and livelihoods, pushing entire communities to the brink of survival.
2. Poor Infrastructure
Even when water is available, poor infrastructure makes it hard to reach those who need it most. Outdated irrigation systems, broken pipelines, and unlined canals cause massive water loss through seepage. Rural communities depend on old wells that can no longer hold enough water.
In many areas, groundwater exists — but without proper bore systems or pumps, it remains inaccessible. This technical gap turns potential water sources into unreachable lifelines, worsening the crisis for millions.
3. Contaminated Water Sources
Another major reason for the unavailability of clean water is contamination. Rivers and streams are polluted by industrial waste, open sewage, and agricultural runoff. In coastal and desert regions, groundwater is often saline, making it unsafe for drinking or cooking.
In these communities, water might be present — but it’s poisoned by impurities. Families have no choice but to drink what they can find, risking illness and infection. The tragedy isn’t the total absence of water; it’s that what remains is no longer safe.
4. Socioeconomic Factors
Poverty deepens the water crisis in Pakistan. Many families can’t afford filtration systems, storage tanks, or even the fuel needed to transport water from distant wells. For them, every drop comes at a heavy cost of time, effort, and often, health.
In Thar, women and children spend hours walking long distances with heavy containers, often under scorching heat. This daily struggle robs children of education and adults of productive work. The unavailability of water isn’t just an environmental issue — it’s a cycle of inequality that keeps the poorest trapped in survival mode.
How the Unavailability of Water Impacts Daily Life
The unavailability of water doesn’t just mean thirst. It quietly shapes every part of daily life — from health and hygiene to education and livelihood.
In Pakistan’s remote regions like Thar, a single day without clean water can determine whether a family eats, works, or survives.
1. Impact on Health
When water is scarce, hygiene suffers, and disease spreads fast. Families are forced to drink from contaminated ponds and saline wells. According to UNICEF, over 53,000 children die each year in Pakistan from waterborne diseases like diarrhea, cholera, and typhoid.
Without access to clean drinking water, people fall into a cycle of poor health and poverty. A child too weak to go to school, a farmer too sick to work: all because of something as simple as unsafe water. In Thar, many clinics report dehydration and malnutrition as common conditions tied directly to water scarcity.
2. Impact on Education
Water shortage affects learning too. In many villages, girls miss school because they spend hours each morning fetching water. When wells run dry, the journey becomes longer, sometimes up to 5–7 kilometers each way.
Schools also struggle to stay open when water runs out. Without water for drinking, cooking, or cleaning, attendance drops sharply. Many children lose not just days, but entire futures, to the unavailability of water.
3. Impact on Livelihood and Food Security
For communities that depend on agriculture and livestock, unavailability of water means hunger. Crops dry up, animals die, and families lose their only source of income. Farmers can’t plant seeds when irrigation canals stay empty for months.
As the soil turns barren, people are forced to migrate, leaving behind their homes in search of water and work. This pattern has been repeated across Thar for generations.
When there’s no water, there’s no food. When there’s no food, there’s no stability.
The water crisis is not just about thirst. It’s about survival itself.
4. The Hidden Emotional Toll
Beyond physical suffering, the unavailability of water brings quiet despair. Parents feel helpless watching their children drink dirty water. Women wake before dawn to begin the long walk. Each step is heavy — not just with the weight of the pot, but the burden of responsibility.
This daily struggle strips away hope. And yet, when a clean water source is installed, when a hand pump flows for the first time, the relief is visible on every face. It’s more than just water; it’s dignity restored, and life renewed.
The unavailability of water doesn’t stay confined to the desert. Its effects ripple across generations, shaping health, education, and the very fabric of society. The next section explores how this crisis unfolds most severely in Thar — Pakistan’s driest region and one of the world’s most neglected.
The Thar Water Crisis: A Closer Look
For decades, the people of Thar have lived in an unforgiving environment where every drop of water decides the rhythm of life.
From the cracked earth to the parched air, Thar’s water crisis is not just an environmental issue; it’s a humanitarian one that affects health, education, food, and survival.
1. Thar’s Harsh Geography and Climate
Tharparkar covers nearly 20,000 square kilometers of desert land in Sindh. Rainfall here is minimal and highly irregular, often arriving only once or twice a year. When it doesn’t rain, villages go months without a single source of fresh water.
Groundwater is found deep below the surface and is often salty or contaminated, making it unsafe to drink. Even animals refuse to touch it. During prolonged droughts, ponds and wells dry up completely, forcing families to migrate in search of water and pasture.
This harsh landscape is why the unavailability of water in Thar is not just frequent; it’s chronic.
2. Women of Thar: The Unsung Water Bearers
If there’s one image that defines Thar, it’s the sight of women walking miles with clay pots balanced on their heads. They begin their journey before sunrise and return hours later, exhausted, carrying only a few litres of water.
These women are the backbone of their families, yet their daily struggle often goes unseen. The scorching heat can reach over 45°C, and the paths are long and rough. Still, they walk. Because survival depends on it.
Their burden represents more than just distance; it’s a symbol of how unavailability of water affects women disproportionately, taking away their health, time, and opportunities.
3. Health, Hunger, and Migration: The Ripple Effect
In Thar, the lack of clean water leads to more than thirst. Contaminated sources cause frequent outbreaks of diarrhea, skin infections, and malnutrition, especially among children.
When water runs out, livestock die, and families lose their primary source of food and income. Crops fail, wells dry, and entire villages are left abandoned. The unavailability of water triggers a chain reaction, from hunger to disease to forced migration.
This is why Thar’s water crisis is both a health emergency and an economic disaster.
4. Ek Plate Biryani’s First-Hand Experience in Thar
At Ek Plate Biryani, we’ve seen this crisis unfold up close. Over the past few years, our team has traveled deep into Thar’s most remote villages, where roads end and the desert begins.
We’ve met children who have never tasted clean water. We’ve met mothers who ration each cup among their children. And we’ve seen how one hand pump can transform an entire community, restoring health, hope, and dignity.
To date, over 600 hand pumps have been installed by Ek Plate Biryani across Thar, each serving between 50 to 60 people daily. In some areas, we’ve gone a step further; installing solar-powered water pumps to ensure sustainable, long-term access to water to over a hundred people each day.
These are not just projects. They are lifelines.
Conclusion:
Unavailability of drinking water is just the tip of the iceberg. The problems associated with it have very deep roots, making every minute a struggle for those suffering from it.
The desert of Thar needs our support to come out of this vicious cycle of poverty and helplessness. Every water project gives them the hope of a better tomorrow.
