The time to act is now, before the silent tsunami becomes a deafening roar
Laiba Ali | Rawalpindi
We often debate inflation, political instability, and the energy crisis, yet we frequently overlook the fundamental issue that silently amplifies every single one of these challenges: Pakistan’s rapidly accelerating population growth.
This isn’t just a number; it is the silent tsunami that washes away decades of developmental progress and compromises our future. With one of the highest population growth rates in the region, the burden placed on our finite resources is becoming catastrophic.
Consider water scarcity alone. As per capita water availability plummets, coupled with climate change impacts, how can we hope to feed and sustain a nation that adds millions of new citizens every year without sufficient reservoirs or efficient irrigation systems?
The strain is visible in every city: overloaded infrastructure, dwindling clean water access, and mounting waste management crises. Economically, the sheer scale of annual additions to the workforce makes poverty and unemployment intractable problems.
Our economy, already struggling with debt, simply cannot generate quality jobs at the pace required. This creates a perpetually young, frustrated, and underemployed demographic, which breeds social unrest and hinders sustained development.
Furthermore, the massive allocation of resources towards basic sustenance and consumption prevents essential investments in human capital—education and healthcare—thereby trapping future generations in the same vicious cycle. The solution requires more than just acknowledging the problem; it demands coordinated, political will.
We must launch a widespread, continuous, and non-partisan public awareness campaign promoting small family norms, integrated with robust health services that offer accessible family planning. Education, particularly of women, is key to giving families the autonomy and knowledge to make informed reproductive choices.
This crisis cannot be solved by economic bailouts or political maneuvering alone. It requires a societal shift, driven by responsible policy and media engagement. We must understand that controlling population is not about limiting life; it is about guaranteeing a sustainable, prosperous, and dignified life for every citizen of Pakistan. The time to act is now, before the silent tsunami becomes a deafening roar.
Read: Pakistan’s population grows by 25 million in 5 years
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Laiba Ali is a law student based in Satellite town, Rawalpindi.
