Pakistan is a country that faces a number of challenges related to its water security. This includes increasing demand for water, climate change and floods. Water scarcity has a direct impact on agriculture and rural livelihoods, as well as economic growth and food security. It also poses a threat to public health through waterborne diseases such as diarrhea, cholera, jaundice and typhoid.
Building Dams
Pakistan’s water resources are becoming depleted at a faster rate than before. This is due to the adverse impact of climate change and increased demand for water from agriculture, industry and households. As a result, water shortages are the biggest national security challenges for Pakistan. Various measures required to address these issues, including a holistic approach that includes improving water storage, flood management and water conservation.
One solution that the government has been pursuing is building dams. These projects can increase water storage, improve flood control and provide a better source of drinking water. But they also need to built in a way that will be sustainable and won’t damage the environment.
To achieve these goals, the government must prioritize building small dams instead of large ones. These are less expensive and can help bring economic prosperity at a local level.
For example, a new dam in Konkar, Sindh province, has helped farmers to produce more onions, despite the drought. This has had a significant positive impact on the local population.
However, construction of large dams has been challenging in Pakistan. For example, the Diamer Basha hydropower dam in Gilgit-Baltistan, a Kashmir border region that disputed with India, has faced fierce opposition from the local community.
Moreover, the project is also facing problems in attracting multinational funding. It is important for Pakistan to build more dams in order to secure its water supply.
In addition, a dam can help alleviate droughts in the region and prevent future floods. It can also protect the local ecosystem and reduce soil erosion.
While these benefits are great, they may not be enough to satisfy the demands of Pakistan’s growing population. The country needs to take additional steps, such as Managed Aquifer Recharge and reforestation, to ensure that it can continue to use its water wisely in the future.
Achieving these objectives is not easy, but it is essential for a healthy, prosperous and secure Pakistan. These efforts can made by implementing a comprehensive water policy that addresses all the issues associated with water conservation and management in the country.
Increasing Water Storage
Pakistan faces multiple water security challenges, including an increasing population and climate change impacts. It is critical to build dams and other infrastructure to increase storage capacity and improve water security in order to cope with a growing demand for water.
Building dams is important in Pakistan because they can help to store water for the wet season and reduce the risk of flooding. But the NWP points out that Pakistan also needs to focus on using water more efficiently. This includes reducing seepage through canals, regulating drilling for groundwater wells, and treating and reusing wastewater.
One way to do this is by building more reservoirs and improving water conveyance efficiency. This could help Pakistan reduce the number of reservoirs it will need to store water and decrease its dependence on large dams.
However, this strategy is not without its risks. For example, a large number of dams in the world have limited lifetimes, and Pakistan’s Tarbela Reservoir has already lost about 35% of its capacity due to soil erosion.
If the government wants to make sure that it doesn’t have to build dams in the future, it needs to focus on improving the water use efficiency of the country’s agriculture sector. For instance, it should adopt drip and sprinkler irrigation instead of direct spraying in order to save water.
Moreover, it should focus on diverting wastewater from residential and commercial buildings and introducing recycling plants in a phased manner across the country. By doing so, it will be able to reuse much of the wastewater that is currently discharge into rivers and streams.
The government can also increase water storage capacity in the country’s existing reservoirs. This will allow it to buffer against changes in flow patterns caused by climate change and other factors.
Although Pakistan is a water-rich country, it is still vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change. This includes reduced flows from the Indus River during the monsoon and dreadful floods that can destroy a country’s infrastructure. It can also experience other climate-related impacts that can impact its water security, such as higher temperatures and droughts.
Reducing Seepage
One of the main challenges facing Pakistan’s water security is seepage. About half of the water from canals and other irrigation structures in the country lost before it reaches farmers’ fields. This causes a wide range of problems, including salinization and waterlogging, which can negatively impact crop yields.
To prevent these problems, it’s important to increase the amount of water stored in reservoirs and build effective flood control measures. This can help reduce the risk of flooding and ensure that the population has access to safe drinking water.
It’s also crucial to improve the efficiency of the irrigation infrastructure that exists in Pakistan. This will allow for better irrigated land, which can lead to higher crop yields.
This can be accomplish by building more dams and installing irrigation infrastructure that takes advantage of underground storage. This will allow for more targeted water capture, which can significantly improve the efficiency of the irrigation process.
Another important step in reducing seepage is to construct channels that have better linings. There are a number of different materials that can be use to line a channel. Choosing the right material can greatly affect the cost of construction and the rate at which water lost.
If the lining made of a solid material, such as concrete or brick powder, it will be much more resistant to seepage than if it’s made from shingle or marble powder. This can save money and ensure that the water stays where it’s supposed to be, preventing water loss and allowing for more efficient irrigation.
These types of structures can be very expensive to build, but they will ultimately benefit the country in the long run. They will be able to increase the amount of water that can be store in reservoirs and ensure that the population has access to clean drinking water.
If the government in Pakistan can make these efforts, they will significantly improve the country’s water security. These improvements will protect the population from water-borne diseases and ensure that the economy thrives. This will make a difference for everyone in the country, and will allow for greater progress on other water security challenges.
Investing in Irrigation Infrastructure
Pakistan is home to the world’s largest contiguous irrigation system, with a network of mighty barrages and thousands of canals that distribute water from the Indus River to millions of hectares of land. These irrigated lands are central to the food and water security of Pakistan. But climate change and siltation of reservoirs will soon reduce the surface supplies to the system, threatening the ability of farmers to produce sufficient water for their cropping needs.
One way to ensure the long-term availability of irrigated agricultural land and water resources is by investing in infrastructure that increases access to water for growing crops. This includes constructing new dams, expanding existing dams, improving water-use efficiency in agriculture, and managing surface-water and groundwater resources to avoid problems of soil salinization and waterlogging.
However, despite the significant investments in infrastructure, water availability in large irrigation systems in Pakistan remains a major challenge. In particular, asymmetric access to water in canal irrigation systems can limit the potential for cost recovery by increasing the amount of regulated water-use fees that farmers must pay.
For example, in the Indus Basin Irrigation System (IBIS), a network of hundreds of kilometers of canals that irrigate millions of hectares of farmland, farmers at the head of distributaries and minors are able to receive more water than those at the end of these channels because they can re-appropriate the same flow through warabandi, a fixed-turn system in which a farmer receives all available water entering a channel for a certain period before yielding it to another farmer.
As a result, they are able to grow more food and more efficiently use water than other farmers. In turn, this can help to improve the overall economy of Pakistan by reducing energy costs and increasing exports.
But the irrigation infrastructure in Pakistan is aging and in need of repair and maintenance. This will continue to impact the ability of farmers to grow their crops. For these reasons, the country must invest in building capacity among individuals and organizations to improve water-use efficiency, manage surface-water and groundwater resources, and address issues of soil salinization and waterlogging.
Recommended readings:
- Hydropower Dams in Pakistan
- Benefits of Irrigation For New Plantations of Trees
- Business Community and Pakistan’s Power Crisis
- The Hub Dam in Pakistan
- A Brief History of the Warsak Dam in Pakistan
