"Severe Water Shortage" Confronting Pakistan As Reservoirs Fall - Reuters

[hatrack]

SLAMABAD - Reservoirs in Pakistan are drying up, temperatures are soaring and there is little chance of significant rain for at least the next few months, a top weather official said on Monday.

In some areas, taps have already run dry and people are worried about whether they will find enough water for their families. "As I wake up, the first thing I worry about is getting water. I have to fetch water from other streets as the water tap in my street has dried up," Mohammad Zafar, a resident of Tench Bhatta, a low-income neighbourhood in Rawalpindi, said.

The wilting heat is adding to the nation's misery. In Turbat, a town in Baluchistan, temperatures reached 48 degrees Celsius (118 Fahrenheit) on Monday. Pakistan, a country of 150 million people, relies heavily on winter rains and snow in the northern mountains to fill rivers and reservoirs to stock up for the long, hot dry months ahead of the July-September monsoon.

"There is a likelihood of a severe water shortage in the coming months because of this drought," Qamar-uz-Zaman Chaudhry, Director-General of the Meteorological Department, told Reuters.

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http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/36277/story.htm