The situation over water is equally serious in Pakistan whose population is growing by three millions a year and a country that is mining underground water. “In the Pakistani part of the fertile Punjab plain, the drop in water tables appears to be similar to that in India. Observation wells near the twin cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi show a fall in the water table between 1982 and 2000 that ranges from one to nearly two meters a year,” Brown has said in his latest finding.

In the province of Balochistan, water tables around Quetta are falling by 3.5 meters per year. Richard Garstang, a water expert with the WWF and a participant in a study of Pakistan’s water situation, said in 2001 that within 15 years Quetta will run out of water if the current consumption rate continues.