Pakistan has about 1.2 million tube wells extracting 50 million acre feet of water every year for farm irrigation. NASA satellite maps show that Pakistan is among the places worst affected by rapid depletion of groundwater.
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| Water Stress Satellite Map Source: NASA |
A recent World Bank report titled "Groundwater in Pakistan’s Indus Basin : Present and Future Prospects" lays out the need for better groundwater management in Pakistan. Here are three key highlights of this reports:
1. Improved groundwater management is crucial for a healthy, wealthy, and green Pakistan. Pakistan’s Indus Basin Irrigation System is the largest artificial groundwater recharge system in the world, but the current water management paradigm doesn’t reflect it.
2. Over-abstraction, waterlogging and contamination threaten the crucial role of groundwater as a life-sustaining resource, which has cascading impacts on drought resilience, public health, and environmental sustainability.
3. For groundwater to remain a safe and reliable source of drinking water and a lifeline for tail-end farmers, a balance must be achieved between efficiency of the surface water system and sustainability of groundwater resources.
The World Bank report points to the need for better management of groundwater resources. One of the keys to groundwater management is to have an elaborate network of small dams and water reservoirs in strategic locations to recharge underground aquifers.
In recent years, Pakistan has begun to address its groundwater challenges, starting with the National Water Policy 2018 which identified priorities for groundwater management.The NWP supports significant increases in the public sector investment for the water sector by the Federal Government from 3.7% of the development budget in 2017-18 to at least 10% in 2018-19 and 20% by 2030; the establishment of an apex body to approve legislation, policies and strategies for water resource development and management, supported by a multi- sectoral Steering Committee of officials at the working level; and the creation of a Groundwater Authority in Islamabad and provincial water authorities in each of the provinces.
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6 comments:
Riaz Sahib
It is a huge problem. With Pakistan being a water scarce and water stresses country, ground acquirer is being fast depleted. I am afraid some day brackish and sweet water may just mingle ruining the entire acquirer.
Another equally major problem, besides the quantity, is the water quality. It has become so deteriorated that water in the canals is a source of disease. All untreated waste is discharged into rivers which smell foul and are fast becoming open sewers.
I can go on!
Rashid: "Another equally major problem, besides the quantity, is the water quality. It has become so deteriorated that water in the canals is a source of disease. All untreated waste is discharged into rivers which smell foul and are fast becoming open sewers"
Groundwater contamination is a particularly serious issue in coastal communities in Sindh where the seawater is intruding deeper into land.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/319341934_Seawater_Intrusion_Land_Degradation_and_Food_Insecurity_Among_Coastal_Communities_of_Sindh_Pakistan
re: One of the keys to groundwater management is to have an elaborate network of small dams and water reservoirs in strategic locations to recharge underground aquifers.
the best way to recharge underground aquifers is to allow broad expanses of land to flood during the rainy season and thus have water infiltrate to the aquifer over the whole area, just the way it always had historically...but as rivers are channeled to prevent flooding, the areas where infiltration occurring are reduced, leading to aquifer depletion as water is withdrawn for agriculture, which is what is happening with the Ogallala aquifer in the US today...one hopes the Pakistanis do not repeat our mistakes...
The water pumped out,with the NPK and the Sun,and the Fissioning of Photosynthesis,converts into carbon - which is the agri plant - which is then burnt as agri waste,and the crop removed.In the burning process,the moisture in the plant is destroyed,and the dirt and smoke and carbon is released back into the atmos.
Rains will come and go,and no dam strategy will work,due to global warming and the experience of the Hindoos,in Maharashtra - where 10 Billion USD of Dams,have no water.
Lowering prices of cash crops and finding ingenious ways to reject the purchases or making the farming of that crop unviable - will CAUSE revolution and SPIKES IN PRICES (like in Sugar - for Cane)
So there is a Economic,Social,Security and Political Benefit,in the lowering Acquifiers.
ONLY SOLUTION,is Controlling the water from Kashmir and Kabul Basin,and THEN making LARGE DAMS and IRRIGATION CANALS,and raising the POWER TARRIFFS,FOR WATER PUMPS,IN SELECT AREAS.
For that,Pakistan and the PLA,have to take over Kashmir.
All else is a waste of time and money.For farmers,water if Oxygen.They 1st pump water,and then breathe.dindooohindoo
The main issue is "Over-population". Pakistan like India is having more people than it can handle. Until there is a balance of population (in fact, it must reduce), both countries will be in serious trouble. At least, in India the population growth has reduced greatly, unlike Pakistan.
The real problem is not recycling water and not using drip irrigation systems.
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