Groundwater Management

in Pakistan

Dr. Asad Sarwar Qureshi

IWMI-Pakistan

GWP/IWMI Workshop on Climate Change, food

and water security, Feb. 24-25, Colombo

Why GW is so important?

Existing water usage in Pakistan (BCM)

Description of Uses River Groundwater

Rainfall Harvesting

Total

Irrigated Agriculture 76.5 51.8 5.79 134.1

Domestic Water Supplies & Sanitation

2.59 4.19 0.37 7.15

Industries 0.74 1.97 - 2.71

Total : 79.8 57.9 6.17 144

Over 1.2 million pumps, out of which 0.8 M are only in Punjab.

Increased yields by 150-200%. Cropping intensity increases from 70% to 150%. Drought mitigation, Drinking water for major cities. Major source for drinking water in urban areas.

Groundwater-poverty relationship

DRY

Head Rain-fed Tim

e D

imen

sion

Middle Tail

Vulnerable

Zone

Comfortable

Zone

WET

YEAR

S

Relatively Safer

Zone

Relatively Safer

Zone

A

GW-source for survival

Challenges of GW management

• Over-exploitation in many areas.

• Quality deterioration.

• Secondary salinization

• Non compliance of governing laws.

Imbalance in recharge-discharge (Water table decline in 43 canal commands)

The situation in Balochistan is even worse. Sindh is extracting less groundwater due to quality concerns

Punjab

Sindh

Depletion due to overdraft

1993 2003

Increased WT depths and pumping costs. Average WT decline in the IB is 1.5 m/yr. About 5% area in Punjab and 15% in Balochistan has gone out of reach of the poor.

1977 2003

Spatial and Temporal GW Quality

Fresh

Marginal

Hazardous

22% in Punjab and 78% area in Sindh has saline GW.

Soil salinization-still the biggest threat

One ton of salts per ha per year with surface water irrigation.

GW irrigation and Conjunctive water use is even adding more.

GW Governance: HOW?

• In addition to administrative problems, less respect for law and political interference are major reasons.

• Failure of permit system (1980s).

• Non implementation of GW regulatory framework in 1990s (developed with the assistance of WB) due to lack of political interest.

• Failure to enforce PIDA act of 1999-2000 due to administrative and political complications.

GW management options for Pakistan

• Improve surface supplies-reduce system losses.

• Build storages to save water for dry periods.

• Energy-groundwater nexus??? May be not for Pakistan.

• Control demand to reduce dependence on GW.

• GW is complex in Pakistan—No single solution.

Climate change impacts….

Annual Flows to Sea

Drastic reduction-threat to coastal Environment

Increase storage capacity

(15% of the river flow; only enough for 30 days-32% will be lost by 2025)

59% of the flow in the Indus comes from rainfall and 85% is received in during monsoon – storage must!!

Improve water allocation delivery and distribution-reduce system losses

Description of Losses Annual System Losses (billion m3) 1975-80 1980-85 1985-90 1990-95

Canal Conveyance losses 27.4 27.3 26.9 27.0 Watercourse Conveyance Losses 41.3 41.1 40.4 40.7 Field Application Losses 15.5 15.4 15.2 15.3 Total Losses 84.2 83.8 82.5 83.0 Total Canal Diversions 130.7 130.0 128.0 128.8 Overall Irrigation Efficiency (%) 36 36 36 36

(Source: Ahmad, 2008)

• Less and unreliable canal water supplies

• Tail-end farmers get 20% less from middle farmers and middle farmers get 20% less than head farmers.

Electricity restrictions-not for PK

• Electric wells have reduced to 10% of the total. Use of power supply as a tool for GW management is probably not the answer.

• Cost of GW irrigation 30 times higher than that of surface irrigation. US$ 5.5/ha/yr for canal and 167 US$/ha/yr.

• Cost of water from diesel tubewells (US ¢ 2.50/m3) is three times higher than electric tubewells (US ¢ 0.80/m3).

• Farmer prefer diesel tubewells due to low initial installation costs, suitability for small fragmented farms and no worry of power cuts.

• Control demand

GW management options

• Rationalizing cropping patterns according to water

availability (rice, sugarcane areas can be reduced??).

• Improve productivity of rain-fed areas (rain-fed areas

contribute only 10% of total production; Yields are only

1-1.5 t/ha and can be doubled by better WM).

• Increasing use of alternate water resources

(wastewater, saline water) for agriculture (Pakistan

produces 4.5 BCM WW—mostly wasted).

Complex GW occurrence-complex solutions?

Shallow-saline GW-Drainage

Fresh GW underline by saline GW-manage pumping

Fresh GW-overdraft-control pumping

Thank you

Qureshi, A.S., P.G. McCornick, A. Sarwar and B. R. Sharma, 2010. Challenges and prospects for sustainable groundwater management in the Indus Basin, Pakistan. Water Resources Management, Vol. 24, No. 8:1551-1569.