Overview of Water Resources in

Pakistan

Dr Muhammad Ashraf

Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resources

October 16, 2023

 Water ???
• How important water is?
• What are the existing water resources?
• How much water is used in different sector?
• What are the issues that need to be
addressed?
• How these issues should be addressed?
 Water Used in Different Sectors
• Minimum domestic water requirement = 50 liter/person/day (20
m3/person/year)
• To produce 1 kg cereal grains requires 1 m3 water (1,000 liters)
• To produce 1 kg beef requires 13.5 m3 of water (13,500 liters)
• A typical diet requires 5,400 liters/person/day
• A vegetarian diet of the same nutritional value requires 2,600 liters
• 70 times more water to grow food than directly use for domestic
purposes

• More than 93% available water is used in agriculture

• More than 60% groundwater contributes to agriculture
• Irrigation is used on 80% of all arable land
• Produces almost 90% of all food and fiber requirements
• It accounts for around a quarter of the country’s GDP
• It employs 44% of the labor force, supports 75% of the
population, and accounts for 60% of foreign exchange
earnings
 Existing Water Resources of Pakistan
• Major storage reservoirs: 3
• Live storage capacity (designed): 15 MAF
• Barrages, headworks and siphons: 23
• Main irrigation canals: 45
• Command area: 16.6 Mha
• Total geographical area = 80 Mha
• Culturable land = 30 Mha
• Rainfed farming = 12 Mha
• Rainfall – less than 200 mm to over 1000
mm

World’s Largest Surface and Groundwater Resources

•One of the largest contiguous irrigation systems of the world
•One of the largest groundwater resources of the world (4 th after India, USA and China)
•Groundwater supplement over 60% of the surface water supplies
•Over 90% drinking water and 100% industrial water comes from groundwater
 Major Water-Sector Issues
• Water shortage (water shortfall that was 11% in 2004 will
increase to 31% by 2025)
• Recurring floods (2010, 2011, 2014) ≈ 90 MAF
• Inadequate water harvesting and storage facilities (only 10%
of the average annual flow)
• Reduction in storages capacities of the existing reservoirs
due to sedimentation (0.2 MAF/year)
• Unutilized potentials – hill torrents, Sailaba – 18 MAF
• Low system efficiency (less than 40%)
• Low land and water productivity
• Groundwater depletion/degradation
• Disposal of drainage effluent (10 MAF)
• Wastewater use and disposal
 Major Challenges
• Wet years/seasons are becoming more wet and dry years/seasons
more dry: how to transfer water from wet year/season to dry
year/season?
• Increased precipitation intensity and variability - floods and
droughts: storage and optimum reservoirs operations
• Groundwater depletion (quantity and quality): how it can be
managed?
• Changes in water quantity and quality will impact food production:
how to improve water productivity?
• Are the current water management practices robust enough to cope
with the climate change: development of climate smart
technologies?
• Impacts on water supply and demand: development of appropriate
crop zoning and cropping pattern?
 The Way Forward

Implement National Water Policy (2018) in letter and spirt

 Hard Path:
Increase Storage and Improve Water Governance
• Construct small and large dams where possible
• Improve the surface water governance with proper pricing
• Legislate and restrict indiscriminate groundwater
abstraction
• Control increase in population
 Soft Path: Improve Water Productivity
Use Agriculture Water Efficiently
• Improving conveyance and application
efficiencies
• Using high efficiency irrigation
systems:
• Changing the existing cropping
patterns:
• Adopting proper irrigation scheduling
• Using saline groundwater
• Use of improved agronomic practices

Use Domestic Water Efficiently

 Some Initiatives by PCRWR
• Developed National Water Conservation Strategy (2023)
• Determined crop water requirement of major crops grown in
Punjab and Sindh through lysimetric studies
• Researched and introduced high efficiency irrigation systems
such as growing rice on beds
• Completed the investigation and mapping of groundwater zones
in the Upper Indus Basin – 4 Doabs (Thal, Bari, Rechna and
Chaj)
• Introduced cost-effective techniques for groundwater recharge in
Balochistan and in urban areas
• Developed/demonstrated desertification control technologies in
Cholistan, Thar and DI Khan through rainwater harvesting,
saline agriculture, rangeland management, etc.
• Satellite Based Water Resources Management through GRACE
(Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment) and altimeter
• Initiated Farmers’ Irrigation Advisory Service using text
messages (
https://eos.org/project-updates/growing-more-with-less-using-cel
l-phones-and-satellite-data
)
 Rain-Harvesting Ponds
A Solution to Water Shortage in Cholistan
Performance of Recharge Well
“When the well is dry, we know the
worth of water.”
Benjamin Franklin
muhammad_ashraf63@yahoo.com