Water Management System in Pakistan

Water is essential for sustaining quality of life on earth. This finite commodity has a direct
bearing on almost all sectors of economy. In Pakistan its importance is more than ordinary
due to the agrarian nature of the economy. Water is also essential for power generation in
Pakistan, since about 29% is generated through hydropower. Now a day there is more
emphasis on proper and balanced utilization of available water resources is more than ever
before. Pakistan is suffering from drought conditions since year 2000 till June 2010, due to
which reduction in river discharges and lesser rains occurred.

Out of the 169,384 billion m of water which were
withdrawn in 2000, 96% were used for agricultural
purposes, leaving 2% for domestic and another 2% for
industrial use. By far most water is used
for irrigated agriculture, emphasizing the particular
significance of agriculture in the country. The sector contributes about 25% of the
Pakistan's GNP (2000-2001). The country still has the world's largest contiguous irrigation
system. In 1999-2000, the total irrigated area in Pakistan was 181,000 km.

Since agriculture is the major user of water, therefore
sustainability of agriculture depends on the timely
and adequate availability of water. The share of
agricultural sector in the Gross Domestic Product
(GDP) of Pakistan is about 24 %. The increasing
pressures of population and industrialization have
already placed greater demands on water, with an
ever increasing number and intensity of local and regional conflicts over its availability and
use.

According to the United Nations' "UN World Water Development Report", the total actual
renewable water resources decreased from 2,961 m per capita in 2000 to 1,420 m per
capita in 2005. A more recent study indicates an available supply of water of little more than
1,000 m per person, which puts Pakistan in the category of a high stress country.

Pakistan is having three basic reservoirs, namely Mangla dam reservoir, Terbela dam
reservoir and Chashma barrage reservoir and small reservoirs like Warsak, Baran dam hub,
Khanpur, Tanda, Rawal, Simly, Bakht Khan Hamal Lake, Mancher Lake, Kinjhar lake and
Chotiari lake Arealso included as for small storage.

WATER MANAGEMENT-STRATEGIES
Water Management adopt these approach towards formulation of strategies to meet the
growing scarcity of water needs is proposed. The general approach involves:

1. Management of water-resources, to achieve the goal of maximum production per
unit of water used.
2. Tapping of existing un-utilized resources and development of new and
unexplored water-resources.
3. Developing wastewater recycling and its reuse in agriculture, artificial wetlands
and groundwater recharge.
4. Improving the institutional set-up and better governance of water-resources
institutions and infrastructure.
5. Development of contingency plans for short-term measures to adapt to water
shortages that could help to mitigate drought and floods
6. Enhancing public awareness to underscore the importance of conservation and
sustainable use of water resources
7. Ensuring the early rehabilitation, remodeling and up-gradation of existing
irrigation infrastructure in the country, which can sustain the climate change
related expected extreme weather events
8. Legislating and enforcing laws related to industrial and domestic waste
management
Major Challenges of Water Sector Management in Pakistan

i) Water Scarcity: Pakistan is already one of the most water-stressed countries in the world,
a situation which is going to degrade into outright water scarcity due to high population
growth. The key related issues are:
Increase in domestic and industrial demands and consequent reduction in supplies
for irrigation.
Reduction in capacity of storage reservoirs due to sedimentation.
Deterioration of water-quality due to disposal of untreated urban sewage and
agricultural drainage effluent.
Poor delivery-efficiency in irrigation and municipal water supply systems.
Depleting groundwater tables, due to over exploitation

There is no feasible intervention which would enable Pakistan to mobilize appreciably more
water than it now uses.
ii) A high risk water environment: Pakistans dependence on a single river system means it
has little of the robustness that most countries enjoy by virtue of having a multiplicity of
river basins and diversity of water resources.

iii) Large-scale degradation of the resource base: There is abundant evidence of wide-scale
degradation of the natural resource base on which the people of Pakistan depend. Salinity
remains a major problem, with some aspects partially controlled but others including the
fate of the approximately 15 million tons of salt which are accumulating in the Indus Basin
every year and the ingress of saline water into over-pumped freshwater aquifersremains
only dimly understood threats.

iv) Groundwater overexploited and its quality is deteriorating: Over the past forty years,
the exploitation of groundwater, mostly by private farmers, has brought enormous
economic and environmental benefits. Groundwater now accounts for almost half of all
irrigation requirements. Now, although, there is clear evidence that groundwater is being
over-exploited, yet tens of thousands of additional wells are being put Into service every
year, which is jeopardizing the sustainability of this precious resource.

v) Flooding and drainage problems: The drainage
problems are encountered due to flat topography
and construction of roads and other infrastructure
across the natural drainage lines. Similarly, the risk of
flooding is increasing due to accretion of river beds,
encroachments in the river flood plains and incidence
of unprecedented floods as happened in case of
flood 2010.

vi) Climate change: The climate change depends heavily on the glaciers of the western
Himalayas which act as a reservoir, capturing snow and rain, holding the water and releasing
it into the rivers which feed the plain in Indus Basin. It is now clear that climate change is
already affecting these western glaciers. While the science is still in its infancy, best
estimates are that there will be fifty year of glacial retreat, during which time river flows will
increase. This especially in combination with the predicted flashier rainfall is likely to
exacerbate the already serious problems of flooding and drainage. But then the glacial
reservoir will be empty, and there are likely to be substantial decreases in river flows
conceivably by 30 percent to 40 percent in the Indus Basin in one hundred years time.

vii) An inadequate knowledge base: There is a single, massive, highly complex
interconnected ecosystem, upon which man has left a huge footprint. The past twenty years
should have been ones of massive investment in knowledge about this ecosystem. But the
reverse has happened, and even the once-renowned Pakistan water planning capability has
fallen into disarray.

viii) Water Infrastructure is in poor repair: Pakistan is extraordinary dependent on its water
infrastructure, and it has invested in it massively. Due to a combination of age and what has
aptly been called the Build/Neglect/Rebuild philosophy of public works, much of the
infrastructure is in bad shape. This is true even for some of the major barrages, which serve
millions of hectares and where failure would be catastrophic.

ix) The system is not financially sustainable - The current water rates are highly inadequate
and these finance only 20 to 25% of the O&M cost of the irrigation infrastructure. This is one
of the reasons for the declining health of the irrigation network.

x) Pakistan has to invest in new large dams: When river flow is variable, then storage is
required so that the supply of water can more closely match
water demands, Pakistan has only 150 cubic meters of
storage capacity per capita. As a result of this constraint, the
water availability during the crucial Rabi maturing and Kharif
corps wing are seriously obstructs the system capacity to
meet the irrigation requirements which translates into lower
yields.

xi) Poor governance: Conceptually the simplest task for water managers is to move water in
a predictable, timely manner to those who need it and have a right to it. Pakistan has among
the best water engineers in the world. And yet this task is done less and less satisfactorily.
As a result, deficit of trust prevails among the managers and the farmers.

xii) Water productivity is low: Large parts of Pakistan have good soils, abundant sunshine,
and excellent farmers. And yet crop yields, both per hectare and per cubic meter of water,
are much lower than international benchmarks, and much lower even than in neighboring
areas of India. The quality of water service plays an important role in this: yields from
reliable, self-provided groundwater are twice those of unreliable and inflexible canal
supplies.
Conclusions & Recommendations
As Pakistan is facing acute water shortages, but a vision are being to implemented on fast
track to combat increasing shortage of water and improve regulation by 2025.
Canal water supply management needs improvement to avoid wastage of water and for
equitable distribution of available water for the entire canal command.
The country needs more water storages to properly regulate the river flows during the
crop seasons. The Integrated Water Resources Management is required at all levels in water
competing sectors while, improving use efficiencies and adoption of other water
conservation techniques.
The high efficiency irrigation system like, bed, furrow, drip and sprinkler need to be
adopted.
Improve drought forecasting and management are necessary to prepare plans to reduce
the damages due to such severe situation.
Sustainable groundwater management under proper regulations should be adopted to
safeguard aquifer deterioration underground water mining conditions.