April 13, 2006

It is all a question of better water management practices in agriculture, say experts in the field. The responsibility of realising this truth lies with all the stakeholders, the decision-makers, the state implementers and the farming community. Among neither of them has the awareness dawned in the all encompassing sense that water today is no longer an infinite resource but a finite one that is disappearing faster than the system can deal with in Pakistan.

However, sadly speaking, what has occurred to people in authority is that money can be made from scarcity. The distribution of water in one of the longest irrigation canal networks in the world has been determined by manipulating facts and figures of availability at the national level and supplies at both national and provincial levels in directions that are lucrative to officials in the distribution system.

As water availability is, therefore, determined either by power or money or both, there is abundance in one province over another and also within the provinces that benefit the rich and powerful at the expense of the multitude. The theft of water starts with Jinnah Barrage and continues at the Chashma-Jehlum and Taunsa-Panjnad link canals and all the downstream barrages with the net result that Sindh’s agriculture has shrunken by 25 per cent. Being the last, however, the maximum damage is done in the Kotri Barrage command area of three million acres. But, the buck does not stop there either.

The man-made shortage has had a disastrous affect downstream Kotri on the ecology of the Indus Delta and the habitat and economy of the coastal region. The millions of acres that have become unproductive because of seawater intrusion onto the land and in the groundwater aquifers is substantial proof even for the non-visionaries that prejudice and thievery have terrible consequences. Damming and persisting with the established distribution practices will remedy nothing and will only accelerate the tailspin.

Given this all pervasive practice, the building of dams or the reduction of seepage will only reinforce the dis-balance or the in-equitability in the distribution system –– watercourses can be marbled but if there is no water, there is no use of all the other conservation technologies.

The systematic manipulation of water figures, both of its availability and its river withdrawals by the state’s agencies, are the root cause of all the water related problems in the country. After the Sind-Punjab Water Agreement, 1945, every subsequent agreement has taken water away from Sindh to benefit the Punjab.

This was officially done culminating at present with the ministerial agreement of 1994 as per ‘historic uses’. In this case, historic means five years of average flows(1977- 82). From 75 per cent share in the Indus waters, the 1994 formula gave Sindh 45 per cent share down from the 45.8 per cent share in the 1991 Accord. It is for all to see that during a shortage, Punjab’s share increases while Sindh’s share reduces. As long as there is no equitable distribution, no amount of hard work in the areas of preservation and conservation will work.

The distribution of water aside, the inefficiency in the watercourse system and the losses incurred there have to be addressed as the initial costs are high and recurring costs a problem. While reasonable headway has been made in the Punjab on watercourse lining with a fifty per cent achievement ratio, the problem persists in Sindh.

The failure of the state in Sindh to move much beyond a paltry below-20 per cent success rate shows mismanagement. The lining of a watercourse will significantly reduce theft.

There is, however, another problem in Sindh and that is no fault of the growers. As a matter of fact, the growers have suffered because of almost no coordination between the agriculture and irrigation departments. Watercourses are being lined at an enormous expense given the rapid escalation in prices of building materials. Every other day, district officers involved with the watercourse lining project are blowing their own trumpets about the speed they are moving at. Haste, in this particular case, makes waste.

On a visit to Mirpurkhas area, along one of the many farm to market roads, there were miles and miles of bricks lying on the side of the road. On closer inspection, it was discovered that these were the bricks uprooted from watercourses brick-lined from the Japanese grant given to the On-Farm Water Management scheme of the 1980s/90s.

The farmers there lamented the wasteful expenditures (their contribution worked out to 35 per cent in those days) but pointed to the canal source. The rehabilitation work that had recently been done had reduced the bed of the canal to its original level which was two feet below the lined watercourse. The farmers were left with no option but to break their watercourses as two-feet flows have become the norm in the manipulation of flows ––- more is shown on the books than actually flows down the channel.

In the current exercise being undertaken in the lining of watercourses, there is still no coordination between the agriculture and irrigation departments. As soon as canals are excavated or remodelled, all lined watercourses will be uprooted to the new depth of the canal which will not benefit the farmers.

There is, however, much room for improvement in water management practices at the farm-gate as well. The state has attempted to engage the farmers in better management practices by making laser levellers available at reasonable rates. However, lack of awareness and poor extension work has prevented farmers from benefiting.

Precision levelling reduces water consumption by half and fills up in a third of the time making more available for cultivation. In times of scarcity or during rotations, accurately levelled land would ensure maximum acreage irrigated with higher yields and income. This alone does not connote better water management practices. The choice of crops is critical as is the irrigation system.

For Pakistan, given its available water and land resources, a major overhaul of the cropping regimen is needed. The time has come to seriously concentrate on value-added crops such as fruits, flowers, vegetables, oilseeds and so on, that can either be exported as is or preferably be turned into a much higher valued finished products.

There is no alternative except to go down this route as it will far more significantly bolster the agricultural economy than subsidies and support prices. But here, too, the input of the state and private sector organisations is needed to provide information in terms of choice of crops that can be optimally grown with the least water usage under the given climatic conditions.

Selection of crops will also determine the type of irrigation required. As has been internationally acknowledged for decades, in terms of water conservation and optimal use there is still no alternative to the drip and sprinkler systems, one for orchards and the other for high value added horticultural crops. Apart from water conservation, liquid fertiliser application through the drip system ensures maximum absorption.

‘Installing drip irrigation system could save more than forty per cent of the water now used in agriculture,’ says a report by the California-based International River Network and Friends of the Earth of Japan. The report goes on to say that ‘reducing the water consumed by irrigation by 10 per cent would double the amount of water available for domestic supply.’

The future of our cities will then be taken care of for the next 30 to 40 years and the future of our agricultural economy will look bright. This can happen provided the concerned authorities determine and implement their priorities based on broad public acceptance, sharing of benefits and on equitable distribution.
 

In the pipeline By Atiya Fatima

Pools of stagnant water, overflowing gutters and leaking pipes — the entire picture presents an unhygienic environment. The UNICEF has reported that out of total, 40 per cent of diseases prevalent in the country are water-borne and in 20-40 per cent cases patients have to be hospitalised. In addition, unsafe drinking water is one of the major reasons for the unbridled rise in poverty due to the high cost of medical bills and loss of working days occurring due to water-borne diseases. A huge quantity of water –– 166 million gallons which comes to about 35 per cent of Karachi’s total supply of 475 million gallons a day –– is wasted every day owing to leakages in pipelines and transmission losses as well as pilferage. Internationally, a maximum of 20 per cent line loss is considered as understandable but beyond this is seen as ‘uneconomical’. According to a newspaper report, between 25-30 per cent of water losses are caused from pre-stressed RCC pipelines which have outlived their life of 25 years, while another five to ten is pilfered, mostly in katchi abadis. Pakistan spends around one quarter of its GDP on water supply and sanitation. On the pretext of cost-effective measures, relevant bodies neglect the cost of human misery, in favour of substandard materials for pipelines. With the passage of time, the pipelines rust, rot or develop encrustations on the inner surface of the pipe that leads to frequent blockages and hence the entire distribution network collapses. By focusing on the short term gains i.e. cost saving strategies, water and sewer authorities compromise the long term gains; hence pipelines that ensure reliable water supply are substituted for cheaper alternatives. Pipes made of substandard material make the water flowing through them prone to contamination. Based on the National Water Quality Monitoring Programme carried out by Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resources, the bacterial contamination in 2004 ranged from 48 per cent in Islamabad to 100 per cent in Ziarat. Micro-organisms attack conventional pipe systems such as RCC or metal pipes or even sub-standard thermoplastic pipe systems. Thermoplastic pipe systems offered by established companies are a reliable and safe option instead. Quality pipe systems not only save money, but also time which otherwise is wasted in repair works. With a wide range of thermoplastic pipe systems being manufactured in Pakistan by companies operating in the organised sector, stake holders such as users of both public and private sector can benefit from using pipes manufactured from certified materials, for water supply and distribution. It can safely counter problems arising from lack of awareness and the absence of regulatory body to impose strict laws for marketing and selling of unsafe material.

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