Masroor Ahmad

Education

Ahmad graduated as a civil engineer in 1990 from a university in the region that is now Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. He won a Chevening scholarship in 1993, one of 40 people selected in Pakistan. He went to the UK to study for a master's degree, and he did that degree in water environmental management. [1]

Career

Ahmad's first job was as a junior engineer consultant, working with a consortium of firms that included a Japanese firm. He says this first job was in the water sector, which he took by default rather than by design. [1]

He started his development career with GIZ in 1994. He moved from GIZ to UNHCR, then worked for UNICEF, and then at the Asian Development Bank. [1]

Leaving the World Bank

Ahmad later resigned from the World Bank. One reason he left was that he had no ambition to work abroad. He did not see enough career growth for himself at the World Bank. [1]

After leaving, his schedule grew from 9 to 5 to 9 to 9 and then 24/7. He says he has worked double or triple his World Bank workload over the last three or four years. He describes his work since leaving the World Bank as a fruitful and satisfactory journey. [1]

Work in Somalia and Nigeria

Ahmad advises the Government of Somalia on behalf of the World Bank. He says he travelled frequently to remote locations in Somalia and Nigeria for about four years. He says his last visit there was in early March 2020, and work has since been remote. [1]

He says both projects have been extended to 2025. He says issues in the projects were resolved over the past year and a half, and the project is progressing smoothly. He says in-person project meetings have stopped and all work is now virtual. In his view, most people have adjusted to virtual working life. He calls the virtual shift a hard reality, and says no one knows how long it will last. [1]

Ahmad says international partners arrive with their own theory of change, drawn from global experience. He says the World Bank coined the term build back better after the 2006 earthquake in Pakistan. [1]

Views on water scarcity

Ahmad says water is becoming a scarcer commodity across the globe, and that urbanization and population growth are the biggest reasons for water scarcity. He says groundwater is being depleted and that water is not being recharged at the rate it is extracted. He adds that groundwater is pumped without control, licensing or permission, by government and private sector alike. [1]

He says water is scarce in the Balochistan belt and the southern KP belt, while central Punjab and central KP have plenty of water. He says Pakistan's per capita water availability will fall below 800 cubic metres by 2025. He says the figure is currently around 1,000 cubic metres. [1]

Ahmad says no specific research has been done on Pakistan's situation. He says no one has verified the authenticity of those water numbers. In his account, water figures survive as institutional memory, with no record or system that can provide the numbers. He also says many institutions with a research mandate do not do research. [1]

Water supply and use

Ahmad says water delivery in Islamabad has dropped to two or four hours a day. He says Islamabad has two water sources, including the Khanpur dam. He says Rawalpindi's water comes from the Rawal dam. [1]

He says Lahore's water comes from groundwater, though the city lies beside a canal and the Ravi. He says water pumped from the ground is much more expensive to extract. In his view, surface water could be delivered relatively cheaply, but little work is done on it. He says a raw water reservoir, to be filled with water taken from a canal, is still at the planning stage and might take three or four years. [1]

Ahmad says the real need is behavioural change among citizens. He says without financial regulation, individuals have no incentive to save water, and that households pay a flat water rate whatever they use. He describes a Public Health Engineering Department tube-well scheme for 300 to 400 households that its community runs. [1]

Agriculture and technology

Ahmad says about 80 to 90 percent of Pakistan's water goes to agriculture. He says Pakistan's per-acre farm productivity is far below China's and Israel's. He says land once farmed for wheat has been taken over by urban colonies. [1]

He says some technologies cut water use by up to 95 percent while keeping production high. He says Punjab, and to a large extent Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, have integrated the private sector into some projects for farmers. [1]

Ahmad says membrane technology can now treat seawater and brackish water for supply. He says treating brackish water was a very expensive concept 15 to 20 years ago, and that technology has since lowered the cost of this treatment. He says public water and sanitation institutions have not integrated newer technology and research. [1]

Views on governance and policy

Ahmad says that under the 1973 constitution, water and sanitation is a provincial subject. He says national frameworks and provincial policies began only after 2006 or 2009. He says Balochistan has no water policy and no sanitation policy, while Punjab has a water policy but no sanitation policy. He says a policy typically runs for 10 to 15 years and is a living document. [1]

He says Pakistani institutions lack a concept of accountability, and that accountability in Pakistan usually means an MD or CEO is transferred elsewhere. He says the Government of KP's hybrid corporate governance model did not hold its appointed CEOs accountable this way. In his view, an institution's direction depends on its head, who may let it run on momentum. [1]

Ahmad says Pakistan has no sector regulator. He says many institutions work in firefighting mode, focused on getting through the day. He also says inter-provincial water issues involve politics and a trust deficit. [1]

Views on sanitation

Ahmad says the sanitation situation is worse than the water situation. He says urban access to sanitation is not that bad, with about 80 percent or more of the urban population having access to a latrine. He says Karachi's two or three wastewater treatment plants run at 20 to 30 percent efficiency. He says Islamabad's one treatment plant is closed, and Rawalpindi and Lahore have none. [1]

He says Pakistan ranked third among the largest open defecation countries, after India and Indonesia. He says around 56 percent of India's population, about 800 million people, regularly practised open defecation. He says the Community Led Total Sanitation movement began in Bangladesh in the mid-1990s. [1]

Ahmad says people washed their hands during COVID more than in the previous 47 years. He lists diarrhoea, dysentery and typhoid among the illnesses that follow. He says the development sector focuses on outputs rather than outcomes. [1]

He says sanitation is mainly the job of government and institutions, though individuals have a part. He says citizens and institutions each push responsibility onto the other. He says development partners, including IFIs and international NGOs, have been working a lot. He says he must start with himself rather than wait for others to act. [1]

Advice on careers

Ahmad advises that a bachelor's degree is not the end of a career. He advises graduates to specialise in one or two sectors. He says the trend of going into the government sector has largely changed in recent years. He advises people not to get fixated on one career and to go with the opportunities, and advises people who feel unsatisfied in their work to switch careers. [1]

Timeline

1990

Graduated as a civil engineer.[1]

1993

Won a Chevening scholarship, one of 40 people selected in Pakistan.[1]

1994

Started his development career with GIZ.[1]

2020

Made his last visit to Somalia and Nigeria, in early March, after which work became remote.[1]

Appearances

Frequently asked questions

References

1. Pakistan's water crisis runs deeper than scarcity . Thought Behind Things , 2021-04-12.