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WATER RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

Introduction

1. Water is quintessential factor, equally important, for the manifestation of mankind and
for the sustainable country’s economic growth. In the present day, emphasis on appropriate and
balanced utilization of available water resources has become pinnacle and undeniable. As
Pakistan witnessed and underwent drought conditions since year 2000 till June 2010 which
resulted in reduction in river discharges and increased reliance on ground water. Nevertheless,
during year 2010 from July to September, there were severe floods and below Kotri flows were
over 53 MAF. The circumstances dictate conservation and integration of water resources to meet
the water and energy requirements of the country. The Indus river system consists of; Western
Rivers, River Indus, River Kabul, River Jhelum, River Chenab and Eastern Rivers, River Ravi, River
Sutlej and River Beas. The country is chiefly an agrarian economy. Out of its total geographical
area of 79.61 million hectares, cultivated area is 22.05 million hectares. The total area under
irrigation is 19.02 million hectares [Agricultural Statistics of Pakistan (2005-06)]. Irrigated land
supplies more than 90 percent of agrarian production and most of the country’s food. Agriculture
sector is regarded as the backbone of Pakistan’s economy. It contributes 25 percent of the GDP.
Agriculture sector is likewise the major consumer of water and its consumption will continue to
dominate water requirement. Correspondingly, for industrial development main source of
energy is hydropower which is generated by dint of water stored in big dams and reservoirs.
Therefore, the importance of the water for the survival of our economy cannot be denied1.

AIM

2. To carry out objective analysis of existing water resources in country and ‘Prevalent Water
Distribution System under IRSA; and to proffer potentials of water based conflicts due to internal
and external dynamics and their implications on Pakistan’s security.

Objective Analysis Of Existing Water Resources In Country

3. Natural2 and artificial are chiefly two types of major water resources available with
Pakistan. Rainfall, rivers, glaciers, ponds, lakes, streams, karez and wells etc form part of natural
resources. Whereas, surface water from rainfall and rivers, which is in excess of the requirements

1
Integrated Water Resource Management in Pakistan by Dr Allah Bukhsh Sufi(Chief Engineer WRPO, P&D,WAPDA
Lahore), Zahid Hussain(Director I&D, WRPO), Syed Javed Sultan(Deputy Director I&D WRPO) and Imran
Tariq(Junior Engineer I&D WRPO)
2
Water Resources and Conservation Strategy of Pakistan by Ayaz Ahmed(Senior Research Economist), Henna
Iftikhar(Staff Economist) and GM Choudhary(Research Economist at the Pakistan Institute of Development
Economist, Islamabad)
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for irrigation and other uses, is stored in dams and reservoirs form part of artificial resources.
Water from artificial resources ie dams and reservoirs is not only used for irrigation and supplying
water for daily consumption, but also used for hydroelectric power generation.

4. Rainfall. The Monsoons and the Western Disturbances are two major sources of rainfall
in Pakistan. Approximately, about 70 percent of the annual Monsoon rainfall occurs from July to
September. The country has both parched and semi-arid zones. Indus plain receives an average
seasonal rainfall of 212mm in Kharif and 53mm in Rabi seasons. The variation of rainfall is
observed as we move from the north and northeast to the south of the country. Appreciable
amount of rainfall is received in the canal command areas in the NWFP and the northernmost
canal commands of the Punjab Province during summer as well as in winter season.

5. Glaciers. Pakistan has more glaciers than any other land, except North and South Poles.
The country’s glacier area is about 13,680 sq km. The total length of glaciers in Karakoram Range
is 160 km. Its notable that about 37 percent of the Karakoram area is under its glacier in contrast
Himalayas has 17 percent and European Alps has 22 percent area under glaciers. The upper Indus
catchments is estimated as 2,250 sq km area under glaciers which is mainly from most of the
river runoff in the summer season. At an elevation of 3,000 meters above the sea level the snow
fed Kabul river starts from Unal Pass in southern Hindukash which, later on after flowing in
eastern Afghanistan, enters Pakistan from north of Khyber Pass. Similarly, Jhelum River originates
from Kashmir at lower elevation than that of Indus River (Pakistan Water Strategy Report).
6. Rivers and Dams. The country has a number of rivers which are tributaries to the Indus.
Jhelum, Chenab, Ravi, Beas and Sutlej are the five main rivers which join Indus from eastern side
besides three minor rivers namely Haro, Soan and Siran. Number of small rivers which join the
River Indus from the west side are, in which biggest river is, Kabul, Kunar, Punj and Kora. Several
other small streams join the Indus River from the right side including The Gomal Kurram, Tai,
Kohat Tank. Pakistan has a relatively short historical background of dams. The country had only
three dams namely Khushdil Khan Dam–1890 and Spin Karazi-1945 located in water scarce area
of Balochistan and Nomal Dam- 1913 which was located in the Mianwali district, Punjab. In 1955
when the country was facing acute shortage of power the construction of dams was started and
Warsak Dam was constructed on the Kabul River near Peshawar. Later on, with India stopping
water supply for Pakistan affected the network of canal system. Large storage of dams to restore
water for affected canal system became imperative. Resultantly, as part of its Indus Basin
Replacement Works two large dams were constructed; one is Mangla with the gross storage
capacity of 5.88 MAF and other is Terbala with storage capacity of 11.62 MAF.

7. Surface Water. A rim station is defined as a control structure (barrages, reservoirs etc.)
on river just when the river system enters into the Pakistan territory or upstream of the canal
irrigated Indus plain of Sindh and Punjab provinces. In the context of Indus Basin System, the rim
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stations for the Indus System Rivers are the Kalabagh Barrage for the main Indus River, Marala
Barrage for the Chenab River, Marala Reservoir for the Jehlum River, and Sulemanki and Balloki
barrages for the Sutlej and Ravi rivers. An average 154 MAF of water is brought in by Indus System
and its tributaries annually. Three Western rivers contain 144.91 MAF of water and Eastern rivers
contain 9.14 MAF of water. Statistically, the distribution of total of this water, 104.73 MAF is
utilized for irrigation, 39.4 MAF flows to sea and about 9.9 MAF is consumed by the system losses
which include seepage, evaporation and spill during floods. The flow of the Indus Rivers varies
from year to year and within the year. Indus Basin Rivers’ water is diverted to main canals through
reservoirs/barrages. The irrigation water is distributed by canals through a network of branch
canals into the command area. One of the world’s best network, ‘The Indus Basin Irrigation
System’ consists of 16 barrages, 3 major reservoirs, 2 head-works, 2 siphons across major rivers,
44 canal systems, (23 in Punjab, 14 in Sindh, 5 in NWFP and 2 in Balochistan)12 inter river link
canals and more than 107,000 water courses. The total length of canals is about 56,073 km. The
system utilizes 41.6 MAF of groundwater pumped through more than 500,000 tube wells in
addition to canal supply (Pakistan Water Strategy Report).
8. Groundwater in Pakistan. Groundwater is yet another important source of water which
consists 99 percent of freshwater and easily accessible for the world. Statistically, in Pakistan the
volume of ground water is immeasurable. Total water available at the farm gate has been
increased from 3 percent to the 40 percent. On the other hand, Government of Punjab has
underlain unconfined aquifer covering about 79 percent of area, whereas the Government of
Sindh has underlain about 28 percent of area of fresh ground water. The water pumped through
tube wells is used for irrigation purposes. Saline groundwater is put into drains. After diluting
with the fresh canal water, water which cannot be cleaned is utilized for the irrigation proposes.
Especially in the Upper Indus plain the ground water is utilized for the canal supplies where the
quality of groundwater is good. For the Indus Basin Irrigation System (IBIS) 500,000 tube wells
have been installed through which estimated pumpage in all command area is 50 Billion Cubic
Meter (BCM). (Pakistan Water Strategy Report).

APPORTIONMENT OF THE WATERS OF THE INDUS RIVER SYSTEM

BETWEEN THE PROVINCES OF PAKISTAN

9. As3 a pivotal breakthrough in its leap towards the 21st century and turning point in its
march towards national consolidation 21st March 1991 will be remembered in the history of
Pakistan. A dispute that had been festering in this part of the subcontinent for the past seventy
years was unraveled on said day. A meeting of the representatives of the four provinces was held
at Lahore on March 04, 1991 as a follow-up to the meeting of the Chief Ministers at Lahore on
March 3, 1991. Another meeting was held at Karachi on March 16, 1991. There was an agreement

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http://www.pakirsa.gov.pk/
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that the issue relating to Apportionment of the Waters of the Indus River System should be
settled as quickly as possible.

a. In the light of the accepted water distributional principles the following

apportionment was agreed to:-

PROVINCE KHARIF RABI TOTAL

PUNJAB 37.07 18.87 55.94
SINDH 33.94 14.82 48.76
(a) KPK 3.48 2.30 5.78
(b)CIVIL CANALS** 1.80 1.20 3.00
BALOCHISTAN 2.85 1.02 3.87
77.34 37.01 114.35
TOTAL
+ 1.80 +1.20 +3.00

*Including already sanctioned Urban and Industrial uses for Metropolitan

Karachi.
**Unguaged Civil Canals above the rim stations.

c. KPK / Baluchistan Projects which are under execution have been provided their
authorized quota of water as existing uses.

d. Balance river supplies (including flood supplies and future storages) shall be
distributed as below:-

Punjab SINDH Balochistan NWFP TOTAL

37% 37% 12% 14% 100%

e. Industrial and Urban Water supplies for Metropolitan city, for which there were
sanctioned allocations will be accorded priority.

f. The need for storages, wherever feasible on the Indus and other rivers was
admitted and recognized by the participants for planned future agricultural
development.
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g. The need for certain minimum escapage to sea, below Kotri, to check sea intrusion
was recognized. Sindh held the view, that the optimum level was 10 M.A.F., which
was discussed at length, while other studies indicated lower/higher figures. It was,
therefore, decided that further studies would be undertaken to establish the
minimal escapage needs downstream Kotri.

h. There would be no restrictions on the Provinces to undertake new projects within

their agreed shares.

i. No restrictions are placed on small schemes not exceeding 5000 acres above
elevation of 1200 ft. SPD.

j. No restrictions are placed on developing irrigation uses in the Kurram / Gomal /

Kohat basins, so long as these do not adversely affect the existing uses on these
rivers.

k. There are no restrictions on Baluchistan, to develop the water resources of the

Indus right bank tributaries, flowing through its areas.

l. The requirements of LBOD will be met out of the flood supplies In accordance with
the agreed sharing formula.

m. For the implementation of this accord, the need to establish an Indus River System
Authority was recognized and accepted. It would have headquarters at Lahore and
would have representation from all the four provinces.

(1) The system-wise allocation will be worked out separately, on ten daily
basis and will be attached with this agreement as part and parcel of it.

(2) The record of actual average system uses for the period 1977-82, would
form the guideline for developing a future regulation pattern. These ten
daily uses would be adjusted pro-prate to correspond to the indicated
seasonal allocations of the different canal systems and would form the
basis for sharing shortages and surpluses on all Pakistan basis.

(3) The existing reservoirs would be operated with priority for the irrigation
uses of the Provinces.

(4) The provinces will have the freedom within their allocations to modify
system-wise and period-wise uses.
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(5) All efforts would be made to avoid wastages. Any surpluses may be used
by another province, but this would not establish any rights to such uses.

Potentials of Water Based Conflicts

10. Transboundary Water Conflicts4. Ground water resources and surface (rivers, lakes)
water resources are two types of transboundary water resources. Water being continuously in
motion; hence, issues of control, jurisdiction and sovereignty are much more complicated as
compare to static land resources and this task is even more difficult when water resources are
shared by a number of political entities (Shamir and Kliot, 2001). 214 international transboundary
river basins in the world were registered by United Nation Register of International River Basins
in 1987 (UN Registry of International River Basins, 1978). In a recent inventory of transboundary
river basins, 261 international rivers, covering 45.3% of the land surface of the earth were
identified and listed (Wolf et al., 1999) while others extended the number of transboundary river
basins to 280 (Green Cross, 2000 in Shamir and Kliot, 2001). Distribution of fresh water is
disproportionate and erratic resulting in exploitation, which has escalated the scarcity of water
and conflicts in many regions of the world (Gleick, 1993). Shared water resources are
geographical facts. Peacefully organized national and international treaties would have been
achieved if such resources were managed equitably and negotiated sincerely between the
nations. Otherwise, struggle to get hold of the resource could lead to severely violent
unpredictable conflicts (Ibid). Vulnerability to conflicts over water has increased manifold as
different nations have different uncertainties over shared water resources. Southern and central
Asia, central Europe and the Middle East Most are the areas where tensions and the evidence of
water-related conflicts extends back to 5000 years.
11. Water Conflicts between India and Pakistan5. Water conflicts over the distribution of
Indus basin dates back to the 19th century but at that time these were intranational conflicts
between the provinces of Indian sub-continent, which were supposed to be resolved by the
British India. In 1935 through arbitration by the ‘Anderson Commission‘British India was able to
resolve the first major dispute. In 1942 by the ’Rao Commission was formed to resolve newly
emerged water related dispute. With the partition of united India, the Indus basin was also
divided between India and Pakistan in 1947 (Barrett, 1994; Rehman and Kamal, 2005), which left
the control of Pakistan‘s irrigation water in the hands of India, geographically. Soon after
independence in 1948, India claimed sovereign rights over the waters passing through its
territory and diverted these waters away from Pakistan which gave birth to water conflicts
between the two nations. The murky clouds of war started hanging over sub-continent because
of this illegitimate control of rivers; the tension risen to new heights as India refused Pakistan‘s

4
Abbot, S., (2010) ―Water dispute fuels tensions between India and Pakistan
5
Ahmad, T., (2009) ―Water disputes between India and Pakistan- A Potential Casus Belli
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proposal of neutral arbitration to settle down the conflict. Later on, the World Bank offered its
neutral services to resolve the conflict and both India and Pakistan agreed. The division of the
Indus and its tributaries became inevitable as proposal of joint use and development of the Indus
basin as a single water resource was refused in 1952 over the concern of national sovereignty by
both. According to this proposal, India was offered three eastern rivers (Ravi, Beas and Sutlej),
while Pakistan was offered three western rivers (Indus, Jhelum and Chenab). India was also
supposed to provide monetary funds to construct canals and storage dams to replace Pakistan‘s
irrigation supplies from the eastern rivers to western rivers. However, India refused to pay for
the construction of storage dams, which was then settled through external finance with the help
of the World Bank. Since Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) signed in Sep 1960, many controversies have
arisen over the design and construction of different projects on both sides of the basin, some of
which have been resolved and others are yet to be resolved (Barrett, 1994). From December 2001
to June 2002, India was vocally considering pulling out of the treaty as one of the steps of hitting
back at Pakistan for its alleged support of terrorist outfits targeting India (Pearce, 2002), and in
turn Pakistan has stated that it would be prepared to use nuclear weapons over a water crisis
(Wirsing and Jasparro, 2006).
12. Recommendations6
a. The country needs more water storages to properly regulate the river flows during
the crop seasons. The Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) is
required at all levels in water competing sectors while, improving use efficiencies
and adoption of other water conservation techniques.
b. Canal water supply management needs improvement to avoid wastage of water
and for equitable distribution of available water for the entire canal command.
c. The high efficiency irrigation system like, bed, furrow, drip and sprinkler need to
be adopted.
d. Improve drought forecasting and management are necessary to prepare plans to
reduce the damages due to such severe situation.
e. Sustainable groundwater management under proper regulations should be
adopted to safeguard aquifer deterioration underground water mining conditions.

Ibn-e-Mehboob

6
Integrated Water Resource Management in Pakistan by Dr Allah Bukhsh Sufi(Chief Engineer WRPO, P&D,WAPDA
Lahore), Zahid Hussain(Director I&D, WRPO), Syed Javed Sultan(Deputy Director I&D WRPO) and Imran
Tariq(Junior Engineer I&D WRPO)