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.