Pakistan needs about $18 billion in federal financing over the next ten years to tackle worsening water scarcity, according to a Planning Commission report. The money would go into flood management, new water storage and the modernisation of the canal system.
The National Water Security framework, prepared under the URAAN Pakistan programme, aims to raise water-use efficiency in irrigation from 40% to 70% by 2029 and to increase the water reaching farm gates from 58.3 million acre-feet (MAF) to 79 MAF.
Storage targets
The report puts current storage capacity at 15.318 MAF and sets a target of 23.54 MAF by 2029, warning that live storage today holds only 11% of the Indus River's annual flow. Ongoing development projects are expected to add 9.821 MAF, while proposed schemes including the Akhori off-channel storage dam, Shyok Dam and Skardu Dam could add roughly 14.5 MAF more. It also proposes a new oversight function under the Indus River System Authority (IRSA) to make water distribution from rivers to farms more accountable.
Falling groundwater and shorter flood warnings
Agriculture uses about 95% of Pakistan's fresh water. Groundwater levels in Punjab are dropping by half a metre to a metre a year, and the Indus Basin aquifer is described as the second most overstressed in the world. The report says solar tubewells, which let farmers pump at almost no energy cost, are speeding up the decline, and recommends tying solar subsidies to groundwater registration and extraction limits.
It also notes that flood warning time at Marala Headworks shrank from 40 hours in 2014 to just 5.5 hours in 2025. It calls for water security to be treated as a national security issue, for a fourth National Flood Protection Plan, a glacier protection law, and for at least 25% of urban wastewater to be recycled, as about 53% of monitored urban water sources are unsafe to drink.
The report warns that the 2029 targets can only be met if new infrastructure, regulatory reform and better water governance move forward together.