SWRD

Surface Water Resources Development

The construction of major surface storages in Pakistan has been forestalled now for almost 25 years despite the dwindling capacity of the existing sotrages and the recurring seasonal shortages of irrigation water which are exacerbating the provincial conflicts. In the face of this situation the most pressing needs are:

• Convincing the stakeholders that, surface storages including small and delay action dams are an economic necessity and that their adverse consequences could be mitigated by socially acceptable means. 
• Convincing stakeholders that the benefits of hydropower development needs to be equitably distributed. 
• Ensuring through mutually acceptable mechanisms, that the beneficiaries would not be deprived of their due shares in the water resources.
• To improve and enhance the existing infrastructure for water resources development
• To address these basic needs, the strategic elements that can be consideration are: 
• Impartial research to bring out the adverse impact of the variability in irrigation supplies on the agricultural production and the extent to which the value of water could be enhanced with a regulated supply. 
• Studies to bring out how the adverse environmental impacts of surface storages can be mitigated in a socially and economically viable manner.
• Instituting transparent procedures for water allocation. 

Core Challenges / Issues

Augmenting the quantum of useable water resources is a pressing need for Pakistan in the face of the rising population, which by conservative estimates, would increase by 48 percent between 2000 and 2025. What this implies is that, just to maintain the present level of usage per capital and the productivity per unit water by 2025, the present river diversions for irrigation should increase form 130.76 BCM (106 MAF) to 193 BCM (157 MAF) and the groundwater extraction increase form 59.21 BCM to (48 MAF) to 87.58 BCM (71 MAF). In the next 10 years, 27, 14 BCM (22 MAF) of additional river diversions would be required and ground water extraction has to go up by 12.34 BCM (10 MAF). With the groundwater having almost fully exploited and annual flows of rivers limited to an average 172.70 BCM (140 MAF), it is obvious that Pakistan would be faced with critical water situation by 2025.

Even though large quantities of the river waters are being diverted for irrigation and other uses, they are subject to the wide variations in the fiver flows - which in the absence of adequate regulating capacity of the surface storages cause seasonal water shortages in the irrigation system. These flow variations also result in frequent floods, with large, quantities of water going waste while causing damage to the crops and infrastructure. This situation, representing, the dependence of the irrigation systems on the run-of-the-river flows (with a limited and diminishing capacity for seasonal transfer of water), is not conductive to the most productive use of water for agriculture as ideally irrigation systems have to be demand-based.

There is also ample evidence that large quantities  of water are lost in transit in the irrigation and other systems.

Once the water supplies have been conveyed for their intended use, their utilization is subject to waste and whatever use is made is not the most productive. In agriculture this waste is typified by tails waters and inefficient irrigation practices in some canal command, and in municipal system by the wasteful use of water.

To augment the water supply to meet the growing demands, consideration would therefore be required to:-

• The harnessing of addition surface and groundwater resources, to the extent feasible,
• Minimizing of irretrievable water losses, and
• Demand management.  

Management of Water Resources

The elements of water management, which are likely to impact on the future initiatives are treated below:

 

Federal & Provincial Roles

 

Water being a concurrent subject, both the Federal & Provincial governments have been active in the development and management of the water resources.

 

While historically the Provincial Governments have taken up the development the irrigation system, the "replacement works' under the Indus Water Treaty were constructed by WAPDA, a Federal Agency. WAPDA also took up the construction of Drainage Works for the control of water-logging and salinity, which on completion were handed over for O&M to the provinces. Hydropower development had remained a federal responsibility until recently when the provinces have been allowed to exploit small scale hydro-electric potential. The operation of the storage reservoirs primarily to meet the provincial irrigation demands (with hydropower as a by-product) is controlled by WAPDA.

 

Water Allocation

 

After protracted negotiations, the provinces finally in 1991 agreed to their respective shares in the Indus River waters for diversion into the canal systems. This , based on the seasonally available supplies, is overseen by an inter-provincial body with federal representation - the Indus River System Authority (IRSA). However the allocation of the water received by a province for different uses remains a provincial subject.

 

Control & Management of Floods

 

The control of floods with its country wide impacts is treated federally by the Federal Flood Commission. The construction and maintenance of the flood control work is however looked after by the provinces. The Federal Government through the meteorological department and hydrologic inputs by WAPDA, undertakes flood forecasting and coordinates the activities of the provincial governments in the management of flood.