Urban Irrigation

Our water scenario, are we heading towords disaster?

Our water scenario, are we heading towords disaster?

The Pakistani government is currently combating numerous political, economic, and social problemsconflicts with India over Kashmir, refugees from Afghanistan, high population growth, severe poverty problems and high terrorism risks. While not necessarily front-page news, water scarcity is growing in Pakistan. Though heavily dependent on one river system, the Indus River, Pakistan has not always suffered from water scarcity. During the countrys infancy, water availability was quite high at 5, 600 cubic meters per person. This abundance of five decades ago plummeted to just 1, 000 cubic meters water availability per person today.

Though, the per capita per year water available in Pakistan is also much less than the international standards, the situation would be much more worrisome after 15 years when the availability of water would go down to 600 cubic meter water per person per annum much less than the per capita subsistence level. According to experts, as per the international standards an individual need 1700 cubic meter water per year.

At the time of partition, we had about 67 MAF water available for diversion, this amount increased to about 85 MAF by 1960. The recent statistical data shows that the river Indus and its tributaries provide about 153 MAF during flood season, out of which nearly 106 MAF is diverted into canals and is available for irrigating 14.6 million hectares of land, while about 39 MAF of water, out flows into sea annually, whereas over 8.6 MAF is considered as evaporation and seepage losses in the river system.

Now the irrigation system is comprised of three reservoirs (Tarbela, Mangla and Chashma), 19 barrages or headworks, 14 link canals, 43 numbers of command canals covering about 90, 000 villages/chaks, more than 12, 000 distributaries and about 107, 000 water courses. The length of the canals is about 62, 000 km with communal watercourses, farm channels and field ditches covering another, 1, 600, 000 km.

The water crisis in Pakistan is of particular concern because water plays an integral role in the countrys economyninety percent of the agricultural output, representing one-quarter of the GDP, is reliant upon irrigation water while almost half of Pakistans energy is hydroelectric.Water associated with land and is held in the polar icecaps and big glaciers of the world and about 25 per cent is found in groundwater and much uneconomical of which is for use.

ARE WE HEADING TOWARDS DISASTER?

Of course we are heading towards disaster. Acrimony between provinces is increasing due to water shortage. These are the points which will clarify my opinion.

OUR LOSSES ARE INCREASING DAY BY DAY.

Pakistan is facing severe shortage of water. If the over-exploitation of the water resource is not controlled by avoiding misuse of the same, the decreasing sub-soil water level is, apparently going to aggravate the current conflict on water shortage among the provinces

Of the 153 million acre feet water entering the canals each year, about 28 million acre feet is lost in transit due to a number of factors. Besides, about 40 million acre feet (i.e. 40 per cent lost within the water courses themselves). Thus, only 73 million acre feet water reaches the field. Also, about 18 million acre feet water is wasted in the fields. Taking into account all the losses as indicated above, only 55 MAF water is normally left for the irrigation of crops. While, 90 MAF water annually goes waste. Thus, the wastage comes to about 62 per cent. The farmers normally need 3.5 MAF water per acre for cultivation, our crops get only 1.5 MAF water per acre.

HIGH ILLITERACY RATE.

At the root of Pakistans water crisis is, according to Naser Faruqi, an uneducated populous, unaware of the danger water shortages pose for the country. Pakistans adult literacy rate is 45 percent. High illiteracy makes water conservation education a difficult task. A largely illiterate population also has stymied efforts to curb uninterrupted population growth (2.5 percent annually).They are unaware of the price they have to pay in future.

LANDLORDS AND CONSERVATIVE CLERGY.

WE ARE the two largest roadblocks to solving the water crisis are landlords and conservative clergy. Landlords who own the sugar and cotton mills view efforts to conserve water as threats to irrigated agriculture, which has been the mainstay of their power. Therefore, it will be key to educate these landlords (as well as small farmers) how they could achieve equal or higher yields using water conservation methods. Landlords increase the area under sugarcane and misuse the water. Conservative clergy say that water is from GOD it will not end in future.

RELYING UPON NATURAL CLIMATE.

An arid country, Pakistan depends heavily on annual glacier melts and monsoon rains. Water from these sources flows down the rivers and out to the sea. En route, there are seepages into the ground, where water-bearing rocks or aquifers absorb and store this water. Most parts of the country receive scant rainfall and have little or no access to surface water. Currently estimated at 160 million; the population of Pakistan is set to double in 2.5 decades. This means that the per capita availability of water will decrease. Annual rainfall over much of the Indus plain is erratic and uneven and not more than 150 mm. The cultivable area is about 22 mha, whereas 11.78 mha areas is under forage and forests. This makes 35.03 mha are suitable for agriculture and forestry. We are not capturing this precious water efficiently.

WATER POLLUTION AND GROUNDWATER.

Water pollution adds enormously to existing problems of local and regional water scarcity by removing large volumes of water from the available supply.Water scarcity has been exacerbated and human health gravely damaged by accelerating contamination of usable water supplies. Many developing countries undergoing rapid industrialization are now faced with the full range of modern toxic pollution problems of heavy metals, acidification, persistent organic pollutants, while still struggling to deal with traditional problems of poor water supply and lack of sanitation services. The pollution threat is particularly serious when it affects groundwater supplies, where contamination is slow to dilute and purification measures are costly. Ground-water reserves are estimated to provide more than 50 per cent of domestic supplies in most Asian countries; yet, these countries are currently experiencing rapid growth in the mining and manufacturing sectors two big sources of groundwater contamination.From that scarce water we are decreasing our resources due to water pollution

NO WATER CONSERVATION STRETIGIES.

Pakistan has the largest contiguous irrigation system in the world. However, owing to the poor state of infrastructure, about two-thirds is lost due to poor transmission and seepage. This means that about 68 MAF is potentially usable water if the canal system is adequately repaired and maintained. We have a situation where instead of improving farming methods to conserve water and increase productivity, agricultural landowners demand more water, only to maintain some of the lowest productivity rates in the world per unit of water and per unit of land.

In developing countries, for example, 60 to 75 per cent of irrigation water never reaches the crop and is lost to evaporation or runoff. Although the use of water-efficient drip irrigation has increased 30 fold since the mid-1970s, it is still employed in less than 1 per cent of the world's irrigated areas. Drip irrigation, Sprinkler irrigation, sowing direct seedling of Rice are conservation techniques but we are not using them.

WE ARE NOT GOING TOWARDS SUPPLY MANAGEMENT TO DEMAND MANAGEMENT.

Pakistan needs a broad paradigm shift to rescue itself from the water crisismoving away from the supply management mindset to one that emphasizes demand management; evolving from an irrigation needy agrarian society to one more industrial. In terms of food production, Pakistans insistence on agricultural self-sufficiency at any cost must be reevaluated. Some kinds of crop production often does not make financial senseimporting sugar cane from Cuba, for example, is half the cost of producing it in-house.

DETERIORATING CONDITION OF WATER IN FUTURE.

The challenge for future water management is enormous. In 1995, about 30 countries with populations totaling 436 million experienced water stress or scarcity. By 2025 about 48 countries will do so and the number of people adversely affected will exceed 1.4 billion, the majority in the least developed countries. An estimated 3 billion people will be living in water-stressed countries in 2035.

WATER LOGGING AND SALINITY IS INCREASING.

The Indus Basin has a flat topography, poor natural drainage and a semi-arid climate with high evaporation. In such an environment, irrigation without adequate drainage has inevitably resulted in the twin problem of water logging and salinity. Increases in diversion of river flows and seepage from canals, watercourses and irrigated areas have led to a gradual rise in groundwater levels. Within 100 years, the water-table has risen from 40 to 3 meters on about 42% of Indus Basin. The situation is worst in Sindh province where water table is within 3 meters on 60% of irrigated area. Pakistan has very poor saturate drainage and irrigation has produced 11 million acres of waterlogged land, which is not good for the country. .In one end we have scarce water on the other end we are increasing water logged soils.How strange we are?

ALREADY OUR RESOURCES ARE DIMINISHING.

The storage capacity of Tarbela, Mangla and Chashma reservoirs 17.1 MAF has already declined by 4.26 MAF due to the sedimentation. It may further decline by nearly 6 MAF by the year 2010, which is nearly equal to the original storage capacity of the Mangla dam when it was constructed in 1967. At present, the storage capacity of our major reservoirs has already declined to 12.6 MAF, which is hardy 20 per cent of our potential storage capacity of 65.4 MAF.

HEALTH IMPLICATIONS.

The serious water shortages in Pakistan have had a great impact on the health of the general population. Today 12 percent of Pakistanis have no access to improved water sources while 39 percent are without sanitation facilities. Dr. Faruqi noted that these shortcomings force people to consume polluted drinking water, which will increase the incidence of waterborne diseases. Grain production is expected to fall short 11 million tons by 2010 and nearly 16 million tons by 2020. If the economy continues to falter.

SOCIAL IMPLICATIONS.

As the water supply in the Indus River continues to dwindle, seawater has begun to make its way into the delta, spoiling irrigated land and aquifers. Such water degradation and shortages decimate farms and spur mass migrations to major Pakistani cities. Such migrants in the cities are often subject to discrimination and economic hardships.

POLITICAL IMPLICATIONS.

Eco-refugees, those citizens who have fled drought or infertile farmland for major urban areas, potentially contribute to an already unstable political situation in Pakistan. Massive population movements are, Dr. Faruqi noted, almost inherently unstable. In the case of Pakistan, however, the fight over ever decreasing water resources may prove even more threatening. During a severe drought in 2001, for example, rioters protesting drinking water shortages smashed windows and overturned cars in Pakistans largest city, Karachi.This will surely occur in near future if we remain calm on this issue.

GOVT. IS NOT TAKING THE ISSUE RATIONALLY.

Though this growing government attention on the water crisis is commendable, I am disappointed by the gap between rhetoric and reality. The government continues to ignore the great depth of the problem, and therefore the initiatives put into action are shortsighted and often misguided. Most disturbing is the reluctance to employ true water conservation measures to reduce overall demand and change water consumption patterns. Instead the government simply is just dreaming of more water to tap. Integral for alleviating the water crisis in Pakistan is the need for education of the populous and involvement of the key stakeholders within the government, landlord, and religious communities who oppose water conservation. In short, Pakistan will need to undergo a broad paradigm shift to move onto a sustainable water use path.

We needed an estimated amount of about 155 MAF by 2005 and will need 215 MAF by the year 2015 and about 277 MAF by the year 2025.3, 4 years ago we have plenty of water but it is now less than requirement.Now we have to do something extraordinary to combat future crisis.

REFRENCES.

(1) DR. S.M. ALAM AND DR. M H. NAQVI, NIA, TANDOJAM.May 19 - 25, 2003

(2)World water crisis and Pakistan

Senator M. Amin Dadabhoy

(3)Water Crises in China and Pakistan
this meeting was cosponsored by the Wilson Center (ECSPs China Environment Forum and the Asia Program) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture

(4)Featuring: Naser Faruqi, International Development Research Centre; Ma Jun, South China Morning Post (SCMP.com); Sylvana Li, U.S. Department of Agriculture (Discussant)