Pakistan Environment - 2022

GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES 

Environment - current issues

water pollution from raw sewage, industrial wastes, and agricultural runoff; limited natural freshwater resources; most of the population does not have access to potable water; deforestation; soil erosion; desertification; air pollution and noise pollution in urban areas

Environment - international agreements

party to: Antarctic-Environmental Protection, Antarctic-Marine Living Resources, Antarctic Treaty, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Climate Change-Paris Agreement, Desertification, Endangered Species, Environmental Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping-London Convention, Nuclear Test Ban, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Wetlands

signed, but not ratified: Marine Life Conservation

Air pollutants

particulate matter emissions: 55.21 micrograms per cubic meter (2016 est.)

carbon dioxide emissions: 201.15 megatons (2016 est.)

methane emissions: 142.12 megatons (2020 est.)

Climate

mostly hot, dry desert; temperate in northwest; arctic in north

Land use

agricultural land: 35.2% (2018 est.)

arable land: 27.6% (2018 est.)

permanent crops: 1.1% (2018 est.)

permanent pasture: 6.5% (2018 est.)

forest: 2.1% (2018 est.)

other: 62.7% (2018 est.)

Urbanization

urban population: 38% of total population (2023)

rate of urbanization: 2.1% annual rate of change (2020-25 est.)

total population growth rate v. urban population growth rate, 2000-2030

Revenue from forest resources

forest revenues: 0.1% of GDP (2018 est.)

Revenue from coal

coal revenues: 0.06% of GDP (2018 est.)

Major infectious diseases

degree of risk: high (2020)

food or waterborne diseases: bacterial diarrhea, hepatitis A and E, and typhoid fever

vectorborne diseases: dengue fever and malaria

animal contact diseases: rabies

note 1: widespread ongoing transmission of a respiratory illness caused by the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) is occurring throughout Pakistan; as of 9 December 2022, Pakistan has reported a total of 1,575,382 cases of COVID-19 or 713.19 cumulative cases of COVID-19 per 100,000 population with a total of 30,634 cumulative deaths or a rate of 13.86 cumulative deaths per 100,000 population; as of 8 December 2022, 59.22% of the population has received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine
note 2: Pakistan is one of two countries with endemic wild polio virus (the other is Afghanistan) and considered high risk for international spread of the disease; before any international travel, anyone unvaccinated, incompletely vaccinated, or with an unknown polio vaccination status should complete the routine polio vaccine series; before travel to any high-risk destination, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends that adults who previously completed the full, routine polio vaccine series receive a single, lifetime booster dose of polio vaccine

Food insecurity

severe localized food insecurity: due to population displacements, economic constraints, and high prices of the main food staple - according to the latest analysis, about 4.7 million people, 25% of the population, are estimated to be facing high levels of acute food insecurity, between April and June 2022 in 25 districts analyzed in Balochistan, Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces; prices of wheat flour, the country’s main staple, were at high levels in most markets in May 2022, constraining access to the staple food (2022)

Waste and recycling

municipal solid waste generated annually: 30.76 million tons (2017 est.)

municipal solid waste recycled annually: 2,460,800 tons (2017 est.)

percent of municipal solid waste recycled: 8% (2017 est.)

Major rivers (by length in km)

Indus river mouth (shared with China [s] and India) - 3,610 km; Sutlej river mouth (shared with China [s] and India) - 1,372 km; Chenab river mouth (shared with India [s]) - 1,086 km
note – [s] after country name indicates river source; [m] after country name indicates river mouth

Major watersheds (area sq km)

Indian Ocean drainage: Indus (1,081,718 sq km)
Internal (endorheic basin) drainage: Tarim Basin (1,152,448 sq km), (Aral Sea basin) Amu Darya (534,739 sq km)

Major aquifers

Indus Basin

Total water withdrawal

municipal: 9.65 billion cubic meters (2017 est.)

industrial: 1.4 billion cubic meters (2017 est.)

agricultural: 172.4 billion cubic meters (2017 est.)

Total renewable water resources

246.8 billion cubic meters (2017 est.)

NOTE: The information regarding Pakistan on this page is re-published from the 2022 World Fact Book of the United States Central Intelligence Agency and other sources. No claims are made regarding the accuracy of Pakistan 2022 information contained here. All suggestions for corrections of any errors about Pakistan 2022 should be addressed to the CIA or the source cited on each page.