A DISASTER struck the southern part of Punjab last week as water from hill torrents entered Dera Ghazi Khan, Rajanpur and Rojhan areas, virtually wiping out standing crops (predominantly cotton) on around 60,000 acres.

Officials said the hill torrent Wadro produced more water (145,000 cusecs) than during its last 100 year recorded history; so it could not be controlled. Along with other torrents, they over-topped three canals — Kachi, DG Khan and Dajal — to spell disaster for these areas.

To reinforce that sense of it being taken as a routine matter, a committee has been formed by the Punjab government to probe into what went wrong — technically, humanly and naturally. Given the history of such probes, it is safe to assume that the entire disaster would be swept under the carpet in complete disregard to individual farmers’ interests who lost six months of their labour and were left with nothing but the banks’ or middleman’s loans.

The area has 13 hill torrents, and all of them are well-known, properly studied and completely documented: how much quantum of water they normally generate, barring aberrations; how much time it takes for water to hit the plains and crops and what could be the spread of water.

The major torrents like Wador, Kaha, Chachar and Mathanwa regularly hit these areas and some of them also have dispersal structures on them, which usually fail to direct the flow of water into canals or River Indus, which is some 20 to 30 kilometers away from them.

Since the area is sloppy, water, with natural gravity flow, travels down to watercourses, canals and river, taking pressure off the provincial government to find any long-term solution to the crisis; once the area gets cleared of water, no one remembers the problem.

The entire water, however, had gone waste.

Put together, these torrents have produced more water than River Ravi this year: Wador produced 145,000 cusecs, Mathanwa 50,000 cusecs, Kaha 67,000 cusecs, Chachar 50,000 cusecs apart from smaller one chipping in with small amounts. Wasting that huge quantity of water and that too through devastation of the public and private property, crops and other vital infrastructure is hardly a prudent option.

That is precisely where the Punjab government needs to intervene, which it has not so far for the last 65 years, and find ways to bring the water into some use. There are numerous options: small dams, check dams and delay dams. No one can say that it is an easy task given the topography, pattern of water flows, heavy silt that these torrents bring with them and small length of these torrents. But, it does not mean that engineering solutions are not possible.

Many countries have such areas and have found varied solutions. The experience of Japan, which has almost identical topography and torrents pattern, can be handy for Pakistan. That is exactly what the Friends of Democratic Pakistan also recommended. Why Punjab still has not gone that way, it needs to be explained.

The Punjab government must initiate studies for optimum solution of these torrents. It must find a solution, which serves all three purposes: irrigation, flood management and sustainability.

It is not to argue that such small dams are alternative to big reservoirs, because they are not. However, the reverse is true as well. The bigger dams are not alternative to small ones either when it comes to local development and poverty alleviation. Both types of dams supplement and complement each other. Pakistan, being a proud host of fifth largest catchments areas in the world, but still facing decreasing water supplies, should build all kinds of dams – big, medium and small.

About local role of small dams, economic experts believe that they are proven and effective tool for local poverty alleviation in their areas. They bring immediate economic prosperity at local level because they bring modern technology, huge investment and formal structures in the areas. If not built, the water can regularly spell disaster for the areas.

Apart from them, economic experts claim that the internal economic rate of return (IERR) of such small could be multiplied with more judicious use of water and improved cropping pattern in their areas of irrigation. Such dams make ideal case for high-efficiency irrigation systems for a number of reasons, which include topography and water supply.

Punjab has already launched a six-year programme to promote high efficiency irrigation. Why not first target such areas, which provide naturally ideal locations for such experiments because such dams are located in hilly areas, which provide natural pressure required for drip and sprinkle irrigation. In the plains, water has to be pumped to a higher place and flow it down to generate pressure in the pipes. In these areas, it is a natural phenomenon that could bring the cost of production down by massively saving on electricity.