Pakistan, May 5 -- The very name "Punjab" means the land of five rivers - flowing like verses through the land, mustard fields golden in the sun, and wells that sang with the creak of the rehri. The farmer was not merely a cultivator but a custodian of a sacred pact between earth and ancestry. Today, however, that covenant is quietly unraveling. A crisis is swelling beneath our feet, one not of storm or scarcity, but of silent, slow depletion. Punjab is running out of water.

The groundwater table is falling with unnerving consistency. In districts like Bahawalpur and Sahiwal, aquifers are sinking by up to one metre annually. The Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resources warns that vast stretches of Punjab could face critical water ...