Catastrophic effects of depleting groundwater in Pakistan
A Time Bomb Threat
Usman Karim
Groundwater is the second largest reserve of freshwater on earth .Non-existence of legislation on ground water extraction in Pakistan is really a dangerous and makes its alarming situation.In Pakistan Punjab, more than 50% of crop water requirement comes from groundwater, producing the majority of food in Pakistan. In the Pakistan Punjab, investment of about Rs. 80 billion ($1billion at 2008 prices) in private tube wells generated an annual benefit of about Rs. 250 billion ($3.3 billion). This investment covered more than 2.5 million farmers who either have their private tube wells or buy water from their neighbours’ tube wells. There was 1000 tube well in Punjab in 1950 and half million in 2000 and in 2008 there are 0.7million private tubes just alone in Punjab. Total tube well in Pakistan in 1.1 million Extracting water from ground. Major problems identified as a result of over-extraction of groundwater Land subsidence, Depletion in groundwater table ,Groundwater contamination (e.g. from arsenic, fluoride and ammonium) Saline water intrusion.
Legislation on rainwater harvesting in Indian states/cities. But in Pakistan no work done
However, rain-water harvesting has not been given the consideration it deserved even in the Tenth Five Year Plan as was done in the earlier Eighth Five Year Plan as it was considered a high risk enterprise. While the Ninth Five Year Plan too, ignoring this important water resource could not be implemented due to various reasons resulted in deteriorated quantity and quality of surface and groundwater as the quantity and quality of water are in direct proportion. The reasons of poor quality of water may be untreated disposal of municipal and Industrial effluents, excessive use of fertilizers and insectcides. In addition, out of the total, 40% of diseases (The Network for Consumer Protection in Pakistan and Action aid Pakistan,) prevalent in the country are water borne and 20 - 40% hospitalizations are due to such water borne diseases.
Pakistan has one of the world’s largest gravity-flow irrigation systems, with three reservoirs, 19 barrages, 12 river interlinking canals, and 59,200 kilometers of distribution canals. More than 160,000 watercourses comprise the distribution network that takes water directly to the farms.
More than half of these watercourses are in Punjab—the largest of the country’s four provinces and the biggest agricultural producer. The system commands a land area of 14.3 million hectares, making it the backbone of Pakistan’s agriculture and contributes one-fourth of country’s total gross domestic product (GDP).
While the three big reservoirs store some 20 million-acre feet (MAF) of water, farmers across the country also pump an estimated 40 MAF of groundwater to irrigate their lands.
The country is facing serious water shortage for farming to meet the food and energy requirements of the burgeoning population. The population of 32.4 million in 1948 increased to 152.4 million in 2004-05 and 167.7 million in 2008 is estimated to increase to 220 million by 2025.Even the conservative estimates indicate that it may increase to 208 million by this time
Under the Indus Water Basin Treaty of 1960 three eastern rivers namely: Sutlej, Beas and Ravi were allocated to India for its exclusive use. The Treaty gives Pakistan control over the western rivers namely: the Indus, Jhelum and Chenab. India has also been allowed to develop 13,43,477 acres of irrigated cropped area on the western rivers without any restriction on the quantum of water to be utilised.India has already developed 7,85,789, acres for which 6.75 MAF has been used. Thus, for the remaining area of 5,75,678 acres, 4.79 MAF would be required on pro rata basis.
The water availability in our rivers is highly erratic and unreliable. The highest annual water availability in the recorded history 1922 to date was 186.79 MAF (million acre feet) in the year 1959-60 as against the minimum of 95.99 MAF in the year 2001-2002. 140 million acre feet (maf) of water annually available in Pakistan in a normal year, some 40 maf reach the Indus delta (though it has been much less in recent years). . The delta supports important fish and shellfish industries According to the Sphere Project guidelines that identify minimum living standards, an individual needs 15 litres of water to fulfil essential requirements of daily life. As a result, Pakistan will have a shortfall of 11 million tons of major food grains by 2010 and 16 million tons by 2020. This food grain deficit will increase to 28 million tons by 2025 . Anything over that amount is just frivolous use of a vital resource in today’s precarious water situation. The Indus basin, covers more than 566 000 km² (or 71% of the territory),comprising the whole of the provinces of Punjab, Sindh. and NWFP as well as the eastern part of Balochistan..The Kharan desert of Balochistan (in the west of the country), which is an endorheic basin covering 15% of the territory. The arid Makran coast in Balochistan Province along the Arabian Sea covers 14% of the territory inits southwestern part. Total water withdrawal in 2001 was estimated at 166 km³, of which 95.6% is used for agricultural purposes (4.4% is withdrawn for domestic use and another 1.6% for industrial use). Groundwater abstraction for agriculture has been roughly estimated at 63 km³/year
Pakistan’s water insecurity dates to April 1, 1948, when India stopped its canal waters from flowing into Pakistan, leaving about 5.5% of west Pakistan’s planted area and nearly 8% of its cultivated area without irrigation at the start of the crucial kharif season.
According to the WFP stats, 38 per cent of Pakistanis are food insecure, and that basically means that they are not able to afford poverty line intake of 2,350 kcal per dayWater (per capita) (most recent) 145.949 sq km per million people in 2008 Pakistan 169.39(CU km/yr Total Freshwater Withdrawal was in 2000 (IGRAC) Per Capita Withdrawal In 2000 .in 2007 per capital available in 890 (cu m/p/yr . Domestic2% industrial 20%and agriculture 78% consumed in 2008
Aquifer Depletion Water table is falling under the Punjab and in the provinces of Baluchistan and North West Frontier. Pakistan needed to spend at least 1 percent of the GDP on water resources to avert crisis like situation in future. The Bank deplored that military spending in Pakistan is 47 times higher than the spending in water sector, which is currently only 0.25 percent of the GDP. The cost of achieving the water sector MDGs has been estimated at $10 billion/year, a seemingly large sum but one that only equates to 5 days’ worth of global military spending and less than half of what rich countries spend on mineral water. Pakistan’s water crisis is largely due to two sets of problems. Firstly, Pakistan depends upon the Indus River for one-half of its irrigation and also one-half of electricity generation. As the headwater of Indus basin system is within Indian-held Kashmir. Unfortunately, in 1984, India violated the Treaty by deciding to build the Wuller Barrage on the Jhelum River in Kashmir. After strong protests from Pakistan, India halted construction in 1987, but there is no firm decision on the future of this project. In the 1990s, India decided to construct yet another dam, the Baglihar dam, on the Chenab River. ”. Furthermore Article III (4) specifically barred India, from “storing any water of, or construct any storage works on the Western Rivers
Secondly, on the domestic front, increasing population, industrialization, environmental degradation, sedimentation in all its dams namely Warsak, Tarbela, and Mangla are also responsible for the water crisis today. Moreover, petty minded bureaucrats and corrupt politicians, and their lack of concern for developing and managing our water resources have added to the ominous crisis. Due to their incompetence, the country could not develop adequate research facilities for social, economic and technical studies of water conservation, management, and its distribution. They also failed to build up country’s capability to handle serious problems related to dams, reservoirs, and sedimentation. There is also little attention given to control water pollution which has not only reduced the quality of water but has resulted in plugged up canals and rivers, or in defective distribution systems. Furthermore, in many cities, uncontrolled drilling for water goes on without any concern for destruction of underground water resources
Freshwater availability per capita 1950- 2050 In World
1950 12050cum, 2000 7310 cum, 2025 5120cum, 2050 4580cum
Product need water for one KG crop Wheat 1150 liters, Rice 2650, Maize 450, Potatoes 160 liters ,Soya bean 450, Beef 15977,Pork 5906,Poultry 2828, Egg 4653 per dozen Milk 865, Cheese 5288 liters of water needed . Withdrawals as percentages of renewable
Resources in key basins, Indus 1995 and 2025, 60mm in 2025 its will be 90mm
Pakistan Population1 167,762,040, Population growth rate in 2008 1.80 %,Agricultural + Trade Balance (exports-imports )Prevalence of undernourishment in
Population 36 % GDP in$ US 144 billion in 2007, 870$US GNI per capita for 2007 . Total land Area 77,872 Ha, (000 ha) Agricultural area (arable land+permanent crops permanent pasture) 25 130 (000 ha) Agriculturalarea per capita in Ha/person .16
Arable land permanent crops 41 00 (1000 ha) Irrigated Area 18 230ha (1000ha) Potential
Irrigated Area in 2007 2000 ha (1000 ha) Total Renewable Water Resources (TRWR) (surface +groundoverlap) 225 km3 (2007) Total Surface water in 2007 in 218 km3 Total Ground water in 2007 55 km3,Total Freshwater Withdrawal (TFW) 169.39(CU km/yr Total Freshwater Withdrawal was in 2000 (IGRAC) Now in 2007 it is 149.5 (cu km/yr,)per million people TFW/TRWR 75 %, Agricultural Water Withdrawal 163 km3/y , Per capita Freshwater Withdrawal 1,138 m3/y . The water shortage in Pakistan is increasing and 70 percent of available water is going to waste due to poor government policies. The g*****ose of the River Indus is melting fast and points to a creeping emergency because it happens to be the main source of water supply to Pakistan’s major cities, including Karachi, besides irrigation. The situation can be gauged from the fact that freshwater availability in Pakistan has fallen from 5,200 cubic metres per capita in 1947 to less than 1,000 cubic metre currently, making it one of the most parched nations in the world. it has also led to sea intrusion up to 54km (36 miles) upstream along the main river course of the River Indus. “Nearly 1.6 million acres of agricultural land has been destroyed by sea intrusion,” If a country like Holland situated below sea level can protect it self by constructing dykes along its sea shore, why this technology could not be used along the sea intrusion zone in Pakistan for saving its precious water resource
Pakistan has one of most developed irrigation systems in the world. Only 20 per cent of the cropped areas are still rainfed (barani). Agriculture’s contribution to gross domestic product has declined from slightly over 25 per cent in 1990 to 19 per cent by 2008.ADB experts stated that Agriculture remains to be an important sector of Pakistan’s economy. From 2000-2008, the sector accounted for 23 per cent of Pakistan’s GDP, 25 per cent of export receipts, and 44 per cent of the total labour force. 90 per cent of Pakistan’s freshwater is consumed by the agriculture sector and demand is increasing daily. However, 38 per cent of irrigated land is waterlogged and 14 per cent saline because of poor drainage and irrigation practices. These practices need to be urgently improved with better technology. According to WWF-Pakistan’s report, Pakistan’s Waters at Risk, which was published last year, “From 2010 onwards, we will have less than 1,000 cubic meters (per person) to use; the water table is rapidly dropping every year. It has dropped more than 50 feet in Islamabad since 1986 and more than 20 feet since 1993 in Lahore… the water shortage in the agricultural sector will be 29 per cent by 2010 and 33 per cent by 2025.”
Flood-plain irrigation is one of the most wasteful forms of using water to grow crops. Excessive reliance on this form of irrigation, coupled with a higher demand for water needed by a growing population, has made Pakistan an increasingly water-stressed country. The per capita availability of water today is less than half of what it was fifty years ago, underscoring the need to tackle this problem on a crash programme basis. Pakistan is ranked sixth in the world in acreage under sugar cane, but now ranked 26th in the world in the total quantity of sugar cane produced per year.Brazil have 2100 maund per acre, maunds per acre ,Hawaii had an average yield of 1,800 maunds per acre, the Philippines had an average yield of 1,100 maunds per acre and Cuba had an average yield of 900 maunds per acre. But Pakistan had an average yield of only 400 -600 maunds per acre. Nothing better illustrates the need for Pakistan to urgently develop crop varieties with higher yields per acre.Higest consumption of water by Sugarcane production.
Despite this low average yield per acre, however, Pakistan produced about 55 million tons of sugar cane in 2007. Farmers converted several million tons of sugar cane into ‘gur’ for their own use and supplied the rest to Pakistan’s 72 sugar mills. The sugar cane processed by these mills gave the country an output of about five million tons of refined sugar in 2007.
But imagine what the results would have been if Pakistan’s average yields per acre under sugar cane cultivation had been at par with, say, Cuba. In that event, our total sugar cane crop would have been around 165 million tons last year, which would have given us a total output of about 15 million tons of refined sugar in 2007.just imagine $35 dollar per barrel of ethanol is made by sugarcane in brazil alone .now brazil stop making ethanol by Corn and soyabean.they are making Ethanol by sugarcane
New storage reservoirs will also have to be built on the Indus and other rivers to compensate for the reduction in storage capacity of the existing reservoirs – Tarbela and Mangla – due to silting.why Sind and other sister province are against Kalabagh .They must come up to takle the problem otherwise country will go a civil war situation .
There are several reasons to expect water shortages to grow worse. These include further increases in irrigated land for boosting food production to feed a growing population; and growth in the country’s urban population, requiring a large increase in water supplies.
Another serious long-term problem is salination. When irrigation water soaks down into the soil, it absorbs mineral salts from the earth, flushing them to the surface. As the water evaporates, these salts dry out on the fields, gradually destroying their fertility. According to one estimate, some 25 per cent of Pakistan’s cultivated land has been damaged in this way. Recovering poisoned fields is vastly expensive. The environmental damage done by ill-managed irrigation schemes is a time bomb that threatens to reverse the progress in food production made by past schemes.Pakistan is currently using half its available run-off, that is, the water that falls on the country and is collected in rivers, lakes and streams, and is drawing half as much again from underground springs and acquifiers.
It has been estimated that by 2025 demand will reach 92 per cent of the entire run-off. So Pakistan faces an awkward choice. Either it must reduce the amount of water used by farmers’ or it must make huge investments to develop new supplies and build more storage reservoirs. Feeding Pakistan in the years ahead will require such gigantic schemes to be successful – or it will require farmers to use water more efficiently.
At present only one-third of the water used for irrigation actually goes into making plants grow – the rest is wasted. Using water more efficiently would also bring environmental benefits.
Water supply in the lower Indus basin is falling behind agricultural and urban demand, particularly in Karachi where population growth exceeds the physical and institutional capacity of the public water system. Conflict between the provinces on the sharing of Indus basin water obstructs cooperation on lower basin water issues
The rate of extraction of ground water is much more than the recharge. Virtually there is no planned recharge mechanism in place, therefore, the aquifer depletion rate is about 10 feet/year. Hence, due to this phenomenon, there can be a big environmental disaster in -Pakistan.. Over extraction of ground water has caused fast depletion of aquifer which has raised alarming levels of bacterial contamination. Though, the surface water is available, but due to ill planning and mismanaging the cheaper sources of surface water. There is a dire need of switching from ground water to surface water, now with realization; Pakistan has been blessed with abundance of availability of surface and ground water resources to the tune of 128300 million m3 and 50579 million m3 per year respectively (The Pakistan National Conservation Strategy,).
In spite of this naturally resource enrichment, per capita water availability in Pakistan has decreased from 5600 to 900 cum per annum (Water Quality Status, 2007). Beside this appreciable decrease in water availability, the quality of both the sources has crossed the acceptable limits. Both state and non-state actors have overwhelmingly detoriated the water quality due to indiscriminate over extraction of ground water complemented with polluted recharge sources. At the moment the northern part of the country has microbial contamination of 64 % (Diagnostic Survey, 2007). Central part of the country has both chemical and microbial contamination. River Ravi and Chenab receives industrial wastewater of textile, leather and light engineering industries more than 1700 MGD, from both India and Pakistan. This phenomenon is not only polluting surface water but also contaminating ground water aquifer, which is flowing towards southern areas during recharge process. The most prominent contaminants comprises of 50,000 thousands dyes (heavy metals and trace elements), chromium, fluorides, iron which have not only polluted the surface water but has also contaminated potential ground water resources (Major source of drinking water in Pakistan). In addition to the above mentioned contaminants, the central and southern part of the country is also experiencing prevalence of heavy concentration of arsenic ground water contamination ranging up to 1100 ppb
The average value of net groundwater recharge during Kharif (April-September) season was found to be some 60 mm. No recharge occurred during Rabi (October-March), rather there was a depletion of the groundwater reservoir during the winter months. Long term average annual depletion of a groundwater reservoir was found to be greater than corresponding value of annual recharge. It was concluded that on a regional basis the groundwater reservoir was being depleted. Pakistan is also facing serious shortage, in both surface and groundwater resources like other developing countries.
However, groundwater is depleting at an alarming rate, especially in dry lands of Pakistan. Therefore, there is an urgent and emergent need to save these areas to ensure availability of good quality of water to the neglected societies of Pakistan. The world overdraws 200 km3 of its global groundwater ‘bank account’ every year. Probably more than 20% of this overdraft occurs in Pakistan placing this country’s food and livelihood security at great risk. According to David Seckler, IWMI’s former Director General, groundwater is being seriously overexploited. In Pakistan’s Indus River system, a major challenge is how to deal with secondary salinization of water and land. This is caused by inappropriate practices for the combined use of surface water and groundwater. Pakistan have 71 small and big dam china have 22000 india have 4200 small and big dams. Groundwater is normally replenished with rain and melting snow, which percolates slowly in the soil and collects in cavities as low as 30 to 40 feet and, in other places, 200 feet below the land surface. The replenishment process is slow and it takes millions of years for the aquifers to fill with water, although low-lying catchments areas fill up faster. Compared to the rate of replenishment taking place, it will be too late for aquifers to fill up in time to balance the depletion. It appears that China, India and the United States, along with a few other countries, will run out of groundwater within two to three decades from now. India created a problem for itself in its north and northwest regions by changing crop patterns. It switched to water-intensive rice cultivation and, since, has been on the verge of exhausting its groundwater. China is no better. Its northeast breadbasket that produces the bulk of the nations’ crops has already run out of water. India is great threat to Pakistan surface water. Baglihar dam will mean depleted water flow to Pakistan. This, at the time the kharif crop is planted in its Punjab and Sindh provinces According to estimates, the dam will deprive Pakistan of 321,000 MAF of water, adversely affecting 13 million acres of irrigated land along the Chenab and Ravi rivers. Punjab’s irrigation secretary, Babar Hassan Bharwana, has already gone on record to say the water shortfall has severely affected 405 canal and 1,125 distributaries, leaving rice, wheat, sugarcane and fodder crops in many districts of Pakistan’s Punjab and Sindh provinces to wither.
Water quality monitoring activities have recognized the nitrate contamination in the drinking water sources as one of the major quality issue of Pakistan. Adopting a uniform sampling design, 747 samples were collected from a wide range of irrigated or non-irrigated regions having distribution of samples in sixteen cities as Lahore (79), Kasur (46), Faisalabad (30), Khushab (50), Chakwal (51), Mianwali (30), Jhelum (53), Bahawalpur (60), Karachi (60), Mirpur Khas (55), Peshawar (38), Risalpur (35), Quetta (81), Ziarat (21), Loralai (21), Mastung (37). The results showed that 19% of the total samples have nitrate concentration beyond the permissible safe limit of 10 mg/L falling in the concentration range of 11-160 mg/L of nitrate. The highest percentage contamination (23%) is found in water samples collected from both the Balochistan and Punjab provinces. Comparatively higher nitrate levels of <70 % in the groundwater sources like hand pumps and wells support the possibilities of increased contamination in the areas cultivated using heavy doses of fertilizers. It is really eyes opener for whole nation
However, after decades of use, the country’s water network is on the decline. The dams are losing storage capacity due to siltation and huge volumes of water seep through canals in poor condition, wasting an estimated two-thirds of total available water every year.
It is also surprising that this technical committee did not mention any thing on desalination of our huge sea water resource and using it for drinking and agricultural purposes along our 1050 km coastal region in Sindh and Balochistan.There are over 200 centres in the world where sea water is being desalinized for drinking and agricultural purposes by utilizing the latest economical desalination technologies.1ST desalinized plant inaugurated in PAKISTN in December 2008
It is also very difficult to expect the larger public to save those three buckets of water every day when they see other sections of society maintaining their ‘spendthrift’ lifestyles. So unless GHQ and the Prime Minister’s Secretariat decide to forego washing their fleets of cars every day, one shouldn’t be expecting the average Malik sahib to keep a watchful eye over his water tap. No number of press conferences or seminars can solve the problem. What is needed is action, action and more action – starting not five years from now or ten years from now, but today. In China, they have self-reliance. In Pakistan, we have seminars on self reliance. That’s the difference. We need to learn lessons from China and act upon them urgently.2nd Punjab and Sind have to rethink about Kalabagh dam and illegal immigrant (guest from last 30 yrs)which are living in Pakistan also a major headache for water security in Pakistan. This includes the Kabul River contribution. The Kabul River contributes a maximum of 34.24 MAF and a minimum of 12.32 MAF with an annual average of about 20.42 MAF to Indus main.The short-term possible uses by Afghanistan on the Kabul river as stated by the President of Pakistan in his televised speech on 13th September, 2003 would be 8 MAF. It is time to settle water dispute with Afghanistan otherwise we are loosing Kabul river too sooner or later .Afghanistan is conducting feasibility study with India to make new dam on river Kabul so better we have 2 make a water accord with Afghanistan . Iran already paid the price of Zabol River so we do not want to pay such big price.We already paying price due to Indus Water Treaty (IWT) with India.
Usman karim Based in Lahore [email protected]