Katas Raj Temple Case Exposes Pakistan's Groundwater Crisis

Pakistan Supreme Court has recently taken notice of the drying water pond at Katas Raj temple located in Chakwal district in the nation's Punjab province.  Hindus believe that it was formed from the tears Lord Shiva shed after the death of his wife Sati.

Why is the temple pond drying up? What is happening to the water source that used to keep it full? Is it symptomatic of a much larger  life-and-death issue of water stress Pakistan faces? Let's explore the answers to these questions.

Groundwater Depletion:

Katas Raj temple pond is a victim of the falling water table due to increasing use of groundwater in Pakistan. Pakistan, India, and the United States are responsible for two-thirds of that outsize groundwater use globally,  according to a report by University College London researcher Carole Dalin.  Nearly half of this groundwater is used to grow wheat and rice crops for domestic consumption and exports.  This puts Pakistan among the world's largest exporters of its rapidly depleting groundwater.

NASA Satellite Maps:

Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resources is working with  United States' National Air and Space Administration (NASA) to monitor groundwater resources in the country.

Water Stress Satellite Map Source: NASA 
NASA's water stress maps shows extreme water stress across most of Pakistan and northern, western and southern parts of India.

The US space agency uses Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) to measure earth's groundwater. GRACE’s pair of identical satellites, launched in 2002, map tiny variations in Earth's gravity. Since water has mass, it affects these measurements. Therefore, GRACE data can help scientists monitor where the water is and how it changes over time, according to NASA.

Aquifer Recharge:

Building large dams is only part of the solution to water stress in Pakistan. The other, more important part, is building structures to trap rain water for recharging aquifers across the country.

Typical Aquifer in Thar Desert 

Pakistan's highly water stressed Punjab province is beginning recognize the need for replacing groundwater. Punjab Government is currently in the process of planning a project to recharge aquifers for groundwater management in the Province by developing the economical and sustainable technology and to recharge aquifer naturally and artificially at the available site across the Punjab. It has allocated Rs. 582.249 million to execute this project over four years.

Punjab Pilot Project: 

The Punjab pilot project is intended to recharge groundwater by building flood water ponds in "old Mailsi Canal and supplement it by installing suitable recharging mechanism like recharging well as pilot project. Moreover to develop efficient and sustainable techniques for artificial recharge of Aquifer using surplus rain, flood and surface water and also strengthening the ground water monitoring network in Punjab as well as to identify the different potential feasible sites for artificial recharge."

Summary:

Katas Raj Pond case in Pakistan Supreme Court has brought mass media attention to the nation's existential crisis with its water resource depletion. The country needs to urgently address this looming crisis with a multi-pronged effort. It needs to build large dams and recharge its groundwater reservoirs. At the same time, Pakistan needs to find ways to conserve and more efficiently use the water resources it has.  The country needs to particularly focus on efficient farm irrigation and planting of less water intensive varieties of crops because the agriculture sector uses over 90% of all available water.


Related Links:

Haq's Musings

Water Scarce Pakistan

Cycles of Drought and Floods in Pakistan

Pakistan to Build Massive Dams

Dust Bowl in Thar Desert Region

Dasht River in Balochistan

Hindus in Pakistan

Comments

Riaz Haq said…
Small dams in Sindh to recharge aquifers:

https://www.dawn.com/news/1358738

Two projects worth Rs1.1bn were approved in water resources. These projects include construction of small dams, storage dams, delay action dams and retention wires and security barriers in Sindh worth Rs886.7m. The project is related to the issue of water scarcity, need for additional reservoirs and mining of ground water.

The main objectives are to conserve rain flood water, recharge aquifer to raise the subsoil water level and supplement the existing barani irrigation system. The scheme will also provide recreational and employment facilities to local people.

The other project worth Rs300m envisages construction of Abato, Daisara and Sanzala dam at Chamman Kila Abdullah. The project would be completed in 18 months and help address groundwater water scarcity with additional reservoir storage and increased poverty in backward irrigated areas. In environment sector, scaling up of Glacial Lake Outburst Flood (GLOF) Risk Reduction in Northern Pakistan worth of Rs3.8bn was referred to Ecnec for further approvals.
Riaz Haq said…
Rainwater harvesting in Thar
Mohammad Hussain KhanDecember 04, 2017

https://www.dawn.com/news/1374301

The Sindh Small Dams Organisation of the provincial irrigation department has been building recharge and storage dams across the province. So far, 44 small dams have been completed and 30 are under construction to irrigate around 155,000 acres of land. In all, 70 recharge and four storage dams are to be built by the organisation.

“If a dam in our village [Chanida] is filled like the Ranpur [dam], we can cultivate the onion crop on 200 acres,” Eidal Kumar tells this writer at the dam’s site in Nagarparkar. “Whatever water is currently available [in the Chanida dam] is used by livestock,” he adds.

Recently, the multibillion-rupee Sindh Resilience Project was launched under which three small dams in Nagarparkar and 12 in Kohistan belt are to be built.

The World Bank-funded project aims to mitigate flood and drought risks in selected areas and strengthen Sindh’s capacity to manage natural disasters. The Sindh government would share 20pc cost of the project.

Of the Rs10bn cost, 80pc would be spent on small dams and 10 main river Indus’ dykes which needed refurbishment after recent floods.

The accumulation of rainwater replenishes/recharges groundwater aquifers and then water is lifted through pumps by growers for rearing animals and cultivating crops.

The sandy soil of Thar absorbs water quickly, but water table in groundwater aquifers around such dams gets improved considerably.

“At some sites [of dams], groundwater level is recorded at 20 feet which was 100 feet before it rained in that area,” says Zahid Sheikh, an irrigation officer who was looking after small dams’ construction until recently.

Besides recharge or storage dams, spate irrigation is another technique applied in areas located on the right bank of the Indus river such as Jamshoro, Dadu, Qambar-Shahdadkot and districts like Thatta, Khairpur and Malir.

According to an old study conducted by the National Engineering Services of Pakistan, around 1.4 million acres could be brought under spate irrigation for cropping in Sindh, which has such 33 sites for water conservation of hill torrents. Small farmers of these areas have remained dependent on hill torrents during Kharif crops.

Ashfaq Soomro of Research and Development Foundation said according to their study, improved structures of ponds can serve to reduce seepage and evaporation losses.

Unfortunately, Sindh has not carried out a geographical study to develop comprehensive data set for a planned effective intervention. “Generally, communities in such difficult areas are left to deal with problems on their own,” commented an expert.

Ahmad Zeeshan Bhatti of the Islamabad-based Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resources says a detailed mapping of Tharparkar is needed for determining potential sites to build rainwater harvesting. Since Thar’s soil is sandy, it increases the seepage ratio. Road catchment could be built to accelerate the pace of rainwater’s runoff after a cost analysis.

India has installed solar panels in water bodies to block sunlight that otherwise accelerates the pace of evaporation. The wind velocity could be controlled by raising hedges around dams, he said.

A proposal for mapping entire arid region was submitted to the federal government after hundreds of newborns died in Tharparkar in 2014 owing to malnourishment. The file has been gathering dust since then.
Riaz Haq said…
Water insecurity in Pakistan
Neil Buhne November 15, 2017

https://www.dawn.com/news/1370550


For people in Pakistan, perhaps the most immediate and serious impact is on water availability. According to a report by the World Resources Institute, Pakistan is on track to become the most water-stressed country in the region, and 23rd in the world, by the year 2040. No person in Pakistan, whether from the north with its more than 5,000 glaciers, or from the south with its ‘hyper deserts’, will be immune to this.

Pakistan’s economy is the most water-intensive worldwide, according to an IMF report. According to the Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resources, Pakistan may run dry by 2025 if the present conditions continue. They claim that the country touched the ‘water stress line’ in 1990, and crossed the ‘water scarcity line’ in 2005, more than a decade ago, and that in relation to the scale of the problem relatively little has been done to improve the use or supply of water.

The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation measures the pressure on national water resources by calculating water withdrawal as a percentage of total renewable water resources (TRWR). Stresses are considered high if the TRWR value is above 25 per cent. Pakistan’s water pressure amounts to a staggering 74pc. This level of pressure is high, even when compared with neighbouring countries, such as Iran at 67pc, India at 40pc, Afghanistan at 31pc, and China at 19.5pc.

-------

Crafting sustainable solutions will require an integrated approach to supply and demand management. In the long-term planning, coming up with strategic conservation strategies is key. Both surface and groundwater resources are being used at capacity, and current methods of extraction and uses are not only unsustainable, they are also damaging to the economy and human security today and in the future.

With the population growing even faster than projected, and the intensity of water use remaining high, if no remedial actions are taken now the water needs of the estimated 208 million Pakistanis will continue to escalate dramatically. While more reservoirs and dams may be a part of the answer, they are just one part. So, apart from building more dams and reservoirs, it is essential that Pakistan diversifies its water resources to ensure water availability. We have examples from many countries that can be adapted to Pakistan.

For instance, Singapore follows The Four Taps Strategy to tackle water shortages, and Japan has invested heavily in water-saving technologies. Similarly, we have plenty of rainwater year-round that can be recycled and stored as is being done in the Maldives.

In all those countries, a price is put on water use, so it’s important to note that for a country like Pakis­tan water is almost a free commodity. Unlike electricity, there are no water meters in houses where people pay accor­ding to usage. Thus, there is enormous, unmeasured water was­tage. To sensitise the public on water wastage it is critical that water usage is metered. Public outreach campaigns have worked elsewhere for helping put a value on water; and decreasing the intensity of water used.

Current irrigation practices are largely inefficient, and water productivity is lowest in the Indus basin’s irrigated agriculture. According to UNDP, the development of laser levelling technology and furrow-bed irrigation has resulted in saving 30pc of water and has led to an increase in productivity by 25pc in Punjab’s Okara district. Such a model should be replicated in other areas, as well as other methods, such as expanded drip irrigation farming systems.

Delaying efforts to address Pakistan’s water scarcities will intensify tensions between different stakeholders. If more Pakistanis are not to be left behind and the SDGs are to be met rapidly, reducing ‘water stress’ is crucial. Water management needs to become a top priority for Pakistan.
Riaz Haq said…
Pakistan Water Policy 2018.

http://mowr.gov.pk/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Pakistan-WATER-CHARTER.pdf


https://www.waterinfo.net.pk/sites/default/files/knowledge/National%20Water%20Policy%20%28Draft%29.PDF


The looming shortage of water in our beloved country has now
become a grave threat to our food, energy and water security. Today,
Pakistan’s water economy is in acute danger of running dry. Our per
capita availability of water, which was above 5,200 cubic meters at the
time of independence, has now dropped below the minimum threshold of
1,000 cubic meters per head, officially making us a water scarce country.
The prevalent water scarcity is inching towards a full-blown water crisis
and is likely to become an existential threat, unless we act decisively

This extraordinary situation requires extra ordinary measures.
Business-as-usual is simply no longer an option. We need to focus all
our energy and acumen, not only to avert an anthropogenic water crisis
but to mitigate the impacts of climate change, as Pakistan is considered
by experts to be one of the most climate vulnerable countries on the
planet. If the glacial melt which accounts for 40 percent of our river flows
accelerates, we will face heavy flooding in some years and as the snow
cap shrinks, the annual river flows will begin to decline. This, combined
with the more than usual variations in rainfall, can play havoc with the
country’s agriculture sector and threaten its food security system.
Taking cognizance of this grave state of affairs, we deem it
necessary to sign a Charter in the broader interest of the present and
future generations of this country, and have forged a consensus that:
 The demand-supply gap of freshwater is broadening on account
of the population explosion, rapid urbanization and sub-optimal
use of this precious resource in all sectors;
 sustainable consumption and production patterns need to be
adopted by law as a water intensive foot-print is no longer an
option;
 since there is no additional water available to inject in the Indus
River System, a holistic and aggressive management regime for
the judicious use of available resources is mandatory;
 being a single basin country lying in a Monsoon region,
Pakistan needs to build a number of reservoirs so as to
conserve some of annual surplus flows that escape into the sea
Page 3 of 4
keeping in view the effects of sea water intrusion, importance of
conserving aquatic ecosystem and to act as a shield against
water related disasters and climate change;
 conservation and scientific management of water is as
important as augmentation; It is unacceptable and ironic that a
substantial portion of the water diverted to canals is lost in the
conveyance system;
 contamination of water has taken its toll on public health and
80% diseases are water borne, responsible for billions of
rupees in lost productivity and medical and social costs.
With the commitment and intent to achieve water security for our people,
we hereby pledge that;
1. Top most priority will be given to water sector and development
spending will be increased significantly with judicious
distribution among all sub sectors including disaster
management and WASH
2. Inter provincial coordination will be fostered to implement
transformational infrastructure development in an equitable and
amicable and harmonious manner
3. Transfer of political power from one regime to the other does
not affect water sector development in any way and that
approved projects shall continue as per agreed time and cost
stipulations
4. Water resources planning and development will be entrusted to
high level qualified professionals.
We firmly resolve that dedicated efforts will be made and all
resources will be utilized to avert the water crisis and mitigate
Page 4 of 4
the anticipated impact of climate change on water security. We
believe that sincere efforts made today will translate into a
water secure future for the coming generations of Pakistan, and
we pledge to leave no stone unturned in this endeavor.
Riaz Haq said…
Pakistan: Focus on water crisis
REPORT from IRIN Published on 29 Jan 2002

https://reliefweb.int/report/pakistan/pakistan-focus-water-crisis

The problem is not only that too much water is not good for the crop but that the water thus wasted is in short supply. Water availability per person in Pakistan today is 1,000 cubic metres, down from 5,600 cubic metres per person in 1947, the year that the country gained independence from Britain. There were about 35 million people in Pakistan in 1947. Today there are nearly 140 million, but water availability has remained the same.

"I need water for properly irrigating my fields before tilling the soil for sowing wheat seeds," 35 year-old Ahmed told IRIN in a field in the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) town of Mardan. "The more water I give to the soil, the better it will be," he said. Unless the fallacy of this outdated custom is exposed without delay, the adverse effects resulting from it could cost Pakistan dear.

This widespread practice among the farming community is already ringing alarm bells for water experts in Pakistan, still affected by the effects of a three-year drought.

"When Pakistan was created, our water resources were the same as they are today - about 138 million acre feet [the volume of water that would cover an area of one acre to the depth of one foot]," Muhammad Akram Kahlown, chairman of Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resources, told IRIN in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad.

----------------

One solution is the development of reservoirs. At least six new dams are planned to be built over the next 20 years. However, in the short term, the situation of the country's two largest reservoirs is far from satisfactory.

"On the average, we have inflows of 146 million acre feet of water in normal years, but for the last three years it is a drought-like situation. Last year, our shortage of water was 25 to 30 percent. During this Rabi [winter crop season] it is about 50 percent short," Riaz Ahmed Khan, chairman of the Federal Flood Commission of Pakistan, told IRIN.

"In normal years we use about 35 million acres of water during Rabi, but this year only 18 million is available," he said. Part of the problem was the shortage of water in the Mangla and Tarbela dams, he explained.

Mangla Dam's capacity to store water is 1,202 ft, and the dead level is 1,040 ft - the level reached after which water is not withdrawn to avert the silting up of the power tunnels. Tarbela's maximum level is 1,560 ft, and the dead level is 1,369 ft. Both the dams are short of water, and if rains are not timely, disaster could befall the country's irrigation network.

Experts say Pakistan's vast irrigation network - comprising three main reservoirs, 19 dams, 43 main canals and a conveyance length of 57,000 km - is ageing and highly inefficient.

Riaz Ahmed Khan said Pakistan pumps 106 million acre feet of water into the canals. Almost 36 million acre feet are lost to seepage, which in turn causes waterlogging, rendering the land uncultivable.

Pakistani officials say that with financial assistance from the World Bank and other multilateral sources the government is working on a drainage project to address this problem within the next few years.

---------------

Kahlown said 45 million acre feet of water are added to the irrigation system from the ground water available in the country. But during the last three years massive pumping out of ground water had taken place.

"If there are no rains soon, we will be in bad shape. In the past, a tube well which used to work for four hours, now pumps water out 20 hours a day," he said, adding that this practice was unsustainable.

"Of the 565,000 total tube wells in Pakistan, nearly 70 percent are now pumping hard water or saline water, because sweet water has been exhausted. If the drought persists for a year or so, it will mean that there will be more pressure on these tube wells," he said.
Riaz Haq said…
#Pakistan’s #water shortage is a myth. Pakistan is world's biggest exporter of #groundwater in form of global #food trade. #watercrisis http://www.eco-business.com/opinion/pakistans-water-shortage-is-a-myth/ … via @ecobusinesscom

The country’s water scarcity is socially constructed, and large farmers engaged in agricultural exports are the culprits and the beneficiaries of it.


I recently came across some real news about Pakistan which merits sharing, and commenting. According to a July, 2017 article by Carole Dalin at University College, London and fellow authors, in Nature, the world’s top journal for scientific knowledge, Pakistan is the largest exporter of depleted groundwater embedded in agricultural exports in the world. We account for 29 per cent of the global trade in agricultural products grown from over abstraction of groundwater, ahead of the United States (27 per cent) and India (12 per cent). So we are number one in something, should we be happy and proud that we even beat the United States, let alone India? Or is there a cause for concern?

The research presented by Dalinet al. is predicated upon the concept of virtual water coined by my esteemed colleague, Professor Tony Allan, at King’s College, London. The concept is simply that all agricultural, or for that matter any industrial products require a certain amount of water to produce, which is embedded in those products as virtual water. For example, it takes about 22,000 litres of water to produce one kilogram of beef, 1,350 litres for one kilogram of wheat, 3,000 litres for a kilogram of rice, 140 litres for a cup of coffee etc. As a water researcher, I have my reservations about the concept and its use, which are beside the point. One has to concede that it is an amazing teaching devise for drawing attention to the impact on water resources, for producing goods and services, particularly agricultural products that make our life styles possible.

So what does it mean that Pakistan is the largest exporter of depleted groundwater as virtual water through its agricultural exports? In Pakistan, up to 80 per cent of the water required by crops to grow comes from groundwater, and not from surface water, as is commonly believed. In fresh groundwater zones, most of the water is in fact, surface water that seeps through canals into groundwater, that is pumped back up to the surface for agriculture. Groundwater extraction rates in Pakistan are much beyond the natural recharge rates, at which the groundwater is replenished

--------------

Is there an absolute scarcity of water in Pakistan? How can the largest exporter of virtual water protest water scarcity? The answer simply is that there is no absolute water scarcity. It is socially constructed, and large farmers engaged in agricultural exports are the culprits and the beneficiaries of it. There are only three types of water storage: glaciers, surface (dams) and groundwater. We have one of the largest reserves of groundwater in the world, and we misuse it for the benefit of commercial interests. The Chinese when they prioritise agricultural investments under the Chinese Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) are not looking for land. They have plenty of it. They want our water. We would do well to remember that in this season of hollering about conspiracies and attacks on democracy.
Riaz Haq said…
Most of #Pakistan's #Hindus are of lower caste #untouchables. When they migrate to #India, they face discrimination. They can not enter #Hindu temples, and assaulted for drinking from the community water well. India is no Hindu paradise for them. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/05/world/asia/pakistan-hindu-india-modi.html

This is not the Hindu paradise they had crossed the border to join, they said. This is not the India Mr. Modi promised them.

Mr. Bheel is wracked by doubt, the same doubt his grandfather had when he chose to keep the family in Pakistan during partition. Did he make the right choice?

He left his home and siblings in Karachi, trading a lucrative job as an administrator of a medical clinic there to live as a migrant in India. His medical diploma, one of the few possessions he brought with him, hangs proudly on a wall, although it is not valid in India. He struggles to make ends meet here.

“You take these decisions sometimes out of excitement for what your life could be,” Mr. Bheel said, his daughter cuddling beside him on a bench. “Then you arrive and realize it’s much different on the ground.”

Mr. Bheel looked on as his wife struggled to contain rainwater leaking from the ceiling, after a monsoon swiftly obliterated the sunny sky. Eventually she gave up, running out of pots and buckets.

“Maybe this wasn’t the right decision for me,” he said. “But maybe my children will look back and say, ‘My father made the right choice.’”
----------------

Bhagchand Bheel is one of the disappointed. When he migrated to India in 2014, he was grateful to leave the violence and pressure of Karachi, Pakistan’s commercial hub. He boarded the Thar Express to Zero Point Station, the last stop before the border, where he and his family lugged their bags by foot into India, settling in a camp in the city of Jodhpur.

He was among his people, he thought, and could finally be free. But he is of a lower caste, and when he tried to enter a Hindu temple, he was barred entry by the priest because of it, he said. And when a friend tried to drink from the community water well, he was physically assaulted by upper caste Brahmins who accused him of polluting it.

“In Pakistan, the only thing that matters is if you are Hindu or Muslim,” said Mr. Bheel, whose last name is derived from his tribe. “Because we are Hindus, in Pakistan we were discriminated against. But in India, I face discrimination because I’m a Bheel.”


Like many Pakistani Hindus, Mr. Bheel migrated after Mr. Modi came to power in 2014, after a long campaign promoting Hindu nationalism.

Muslims in India say life has gotten progressively harder for them, too. Mr. Modi’s government is accused of turning a blind eye to the scores of Muslim men lynched by Hindu mobs. When an 8-year old Muslim girl was gang raped and killed in Kashmir last year by Hindu men, local police officers allegedly helped cover up the crime.

But despite the discrimination Muslims face in India, they do not tend to migrate to Pakistan in the numbers their Hindu counterparts in Pakistan do. Indian Muslims tend to migrate to the West instead.

In the Al Kausar Nagar migrant camp in Jodhpur, huts made out of thin, wispy branches, like birds’ nests, nestle in clusters, with quilts with vibrant Pakistani tribal designs hanging off their sides.

Bands of Pakistani Hindu women crouch over unfinished quilts, stitching away, hoping to sell them in the market to wealthier Indians. They complain that they receive little government assistance, siphoning what little electricity and water they can off municipal lines, and that the quality of public schooling for their children is not as good as it is in Pakistan, a main source of grievance for the many who migrated to give their children better opportunities.
Riaz Haq said…
Managing Groundwater Resources in Pakistan’s Indus Basin

https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/feature/2021/03/25/managing-groundwater-resources-in-pakistan-indus-basin

Highlights
Improved groundwater management is crucial for a healthy, wealthy, and green Pakistan. Pakistan’s Indus Basin Irrigation System is the largest artificial groundwater recharge system in the world, but the current water management paradigm doesn’t reflect it.
Over-abstraction, waterlogging and contamination threaten the crucial role of groundwater as a life-sustaining resource, which has cascading impacts on drought resilience, public health, and environmental sustainability.
For groundwater to remain a safe and reliable source of drinking water and a lifeline for tail-end farmers, a balance must be achieved between efficiency of the surface water system and sustainability of groundwater resources.


----------

In the past, these challenges were aggravated by an inadequate policy framework, lack of regulation and insufficient investments. Unregulated pumping has led to groundwater depletion and the drying up of wells in parts of Punjab. Excess irrigation in areas where groundwater levels are high is contributing to widespread waterlogging in Sindh. An increasing volume of unmanaged domestic and industrial wastewater is seeping into the ground, adding to the cocktail of contaminants affecting drinking water supplies. Inadequate data collection has inhibited the ability to adopt evidence-based policies to improve groundwater management.

Improving groundwater management, however, is integral to Pakistan’s economic development. According to the World Bank report Pakistan: Getting More from Water, without necessary reform and better demand management in the water sector, water scarcity will constrain Pakistan from reaching upper middle-income status by 2047.

In recent years, Pakistan has taken steps towards addressing modern groundwater challenges, starting with the National Water Policy 2018 which identified priorities for groundwater management. This was followed by the Punjab Water Policy in 2018 and the Punjab Water Act 2019. The policy emphasizes the need to curb groundwater over-abstraction and contamination, and the Act establishes a regime of licenses for abstraction and wastewater disposal, managed by newly created regulatory bodies.

Punjab is also developing a provincial Groundwater Management Plan. In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, a similar act was passed in 2020 while in Sindh, a draft Water Policy is underway to provide much needed direction for tackling waterlogging and salinity, and for conjunctive management of surface water and groundwater. The federal government is drafting a five-year National Groundwater Management Plan to provide a framework for coordinating groundwater stakeholders across Pakistan.

These are important first steps. Going forward, the challenge will be to implement and deepen these initial reforms to ensure the long-term sustainability of Pakistan’s vital groundwater resources.

Groundwater in Pakistan’s Indus Basin: Present and Future Prospects proposes a roadmap to improve groundwater management, focusing on four intervention areas: appointing a coordinating agency that is accountable for groundwater management across all sectors in each province; establishing a modern groundwater database; managing water resources conjunctively; and improving groundwater quality.

As the last 100 years have shown, the Indus Basin’s groundwater challenges are complex and varied and demand an adaptive management response. Recent reforms in parts of the basin provide a basis for a more ambitious groundwater agenda, including the calculation of water budgets, wider engagement of stakeholders, comprehensive monitoring of water balances to manage waterlogging and depletion, the identification of opportunities for managed aquifer recharge, and a more rigorous approach towards safeguarding water quality.

Riaz Haq said…
2,000-Year-Old #Buddhist #Temple Unearthed in #Swat Valley, #Pakistan. Barikot appears in classical Greek and Latin texts as “Bazira” or “Beira.” #Archaeology https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/2000-year-old-buddhist-temple-unearthed-in-pakistan-180979560/


The structure is one of the oldest of its kind in the Gandhara region

Archaeologists in northwest Pakistan’s Swat Valley have unearthed a roughly 2,000-year-old Buddhist temple that could be one of the oldest in the country, reports the Hindustan Times.

Located in the town of Barikot, the structure likely dates to the second century B.C.E., according to a statement. It was built atop an earlier Buddhist temple dated to as early as the third century B.C.E.—within a few hundred years of the death of Buddhism’s founder, Siddhartha Gautama, between 563 and 483 B.C.E., reports Tom Metcalfe for Live Science.

Luca Maria Olivieri, an archaeologist at Ca’ Foscari University in Venice, led the dig in partnership with the International Association for Mediterranean and Oriental Studies (ISMEO). The excavation site is in the historical region of Gandhara, which Encyclopedia Britannica describes as “a trade crossroads and cultural meeting place between India, Central Asia and the Middle East.” Hindu, Buddhist and Indo-Greek rulers seized control of Gandhara at different points throughout the first millennium B.C.E., notes Deutsche Presse-Agentur (DPA).

The temple’s ruins stand around ten feet tall; they consist of a ceremonial platform that was once topped by a stupa, or dome often found on Buddhist shrines. At its peak, the temple boasted a smaller stupa at the front, a room or cell for monks, the podium of a column or pillar, a staircase, vestibule rooms, and a public courtyard that overlooked a road.

“The discovery of a great religious monument created at the time of the Indo-Greek kingdom testifies that this was an important and ancient center for cult and pilgrimage,” says Olivieri in the statement. “At that time, Swat already was a sacred land for Buddhism.”

In addition to the temple, the team unearthed coins, jewelry, statues, seals, pottery fragments and other ancient artifacts. Per the statement, the temple was likely abandoned in the third century C.E. following an earthquake.

Barikot appears in classical Greek and Latin texts as “Bazira” or “Beira.” Previous research suggests the town was active as early as 327 B.C.E., around the time that Alexander the Great invaded modern-day Pakistan and India. Because Barikot’s microclimate supports the harvest of grain and rice twice each year, the Macedonian leader relied on the town as a “breadbasket” of sorts, according to the statement.

Shortly after his death in 323, Alexander’s conquered territories were divided up among his generals. Around this time, Gandhara reverted back to Indian rule under the Mauryan Empire, which lasted from about 321 to 185 B.C.E.

Italian archaeologists have been digging in the Swat Valley since 1955. Since then, excavations in Barikot have revealed two other Buddhist sanctuaries along a road that connected the city center to the gates. The finds led the researchers to speculate that that they’d found a “street of temples,” the statement notes.

According to Live Science, Buddhism had gained traction in Gandhara by the reign of Menander I, around 150 B.C.E., but may have been practiced solely by the elite. Swat eventually emerged as a sacred Buddhist center under the Kushan Empire (30 to 400 C.E.), which stretched from Afghanistan to Pakistan and into northern India. At the time, Gandhara was known for its Greco-Buddhist style of art, which rendered Buddhist subjects with Greek techniques.
Riaz Haq said…
A century of groundwater accumulation in Pakistan and northwest India

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41561-022-00926-1

The groundwater systems of northwest India and central Pakistan are among the most heavily exploited in the world. However, recent, and well-documented, groundwater depletion has not been historically contextualized. Here, using a long-term observation-well dataset, we present a regional analysis of post-monsoon groundwater levels from 1900 to 2010. We show that human activity in the early twentieth century increased groundwater availability before large-scale exploitation began in the late twentieth century. Net groundwater accumulation in the twentieth century, calculated in areas with sufficient data, was at least 420 km3 at ~3.6 cm yr–1. The development of the region’s vast irrigation canal network, which increased groundwater recharge, played a defining role in twentieth-century groundwater accumulation. Between 1970 and 2000, groundwater levels stabilized because of the contrasting effects of above-average rainfall and the onset of tubewell development for irrigation. Due to a combination of low rainfall and increased tubewell development, approximately 70 km3 of groundwater was lost at ~2.8 cm yr–1 in the first decade of the twenty-first century. Our results demonstrate how human and climatic drivers have combined to drive historical groundwater trends.
Riaz Haq said…
The groundwater system underneath Pakistan’s flowing rivers in the Indus plains has at least 400 million acre feet (MAF) of pristine water. This storage is so large that it is equivalent to more than three years of the mean annual flow of the Indus (or 1,000 days of storage, after excluding polluted areas). This should now be seriously considered in the mainstream planning of Pakistan’s water resources.

https://www.thethirdpole.net/en/climate/pakistans-riverine-aquifers-may-save-its-future/


More than a thousand years ago, Alberuni wrote, “India has once been a sea which by degrees has been filled up by the alluvium of the streams.” This view was later endorsed in the late 19th century by Austrian geologist Eduard Suess, who named the sea ‘Tethys Ocean’. Mike Searle, in his 2013 book Colliding Continents explains that the Himalayas resulted from collision of the Indian plate with the Eurasian plate 50 million years ago.

The Indus river and its Sutlej tributary both existed prior to this collision and drained into the Tethys Ocean. The collision gradually closed the sea and the remnants of the Tethys were filled by the material of eroding mountains deposited by the flowing rivers.

The Indus rivers have carried huge silt loads for millions of years, depositing them in the plains all the way to the delta. In their 1988 book, Irrigated Agriculture of Pakistan, Nazir Ahmad and Ghulam Rasul Chaudhry explained that high sediment loads in the Indus river system have created nearly 200,000 square kilometres of flatlands. These flatlands, to a considerable depth, are made up of unconsolidated and granular formations, capable of holding large volumes of water. “This reservoir of water is so vast, it ranks among the natural wonders of the world,” the authors write as they describe the groundwater resources of the Indus basin.

Aloys Arthur Michel, in his 1967 book, The Indus Rivers, describes these alluvial deposits as unconsolidated material, deeper than one mile, forming a large homogeneous groundwater reservoir with a capacity “at least ten times the annual runoff of the Indus rivers”.

This begs the question, that if we knew about this groundwater storage potential for decades, why has it never been discussed in the mainstream planning for sustainable exploitation to benefit the inhabitants of the Indus basin?

The reasons could have been many. The military dictatorship in place at the time of the signing of the Indus Water Treaty set a future discourse on the harnessing of surface waters only; a drift into debt economy and the lure of easy dollars in mega infrastructure projects for water; interest groups pushing large dams in the 1950s and 60s – an era when the whole world was going on a binge of building large dams; a lack of capacity at home to scrutinise proposals being advised by foreign ‘experts’ with vested interests; the obvious advantages of the visibility of big structures which can be loudly publicised in political arenas and so on. The result was that Pakistan chose the path of building mega-dams, river diversions and gravity-based flood irrigation systems. In doing so, we severely deteriorated our aquifers through waterlogging, salinity, unmanaged abstractions and indiscriminate pollution.

But that was the past. Is it possible to pursue a different path now?

Water quality

First, given the fact that this vast aquifer sits on top of a filled-up sea, its deeper formations are naturally saline. In the northern parts of the alluvial plains, the aquifer may hold sweet water up to a depth of a thousand feet or so, but as one moves south, the depth of sweet water gradually reduces.
Riaz Haq said…
SenatorSherryRehman
@sherryrehman
Good news for Pakistan! Our Recharge Pakistan project, which will be implemented over the next 7 years, has been approved today for funding of 77.8 M USD. These include GCF resources of 66 M USD and co-financing of around USD 11.8 M. This adaptation project aims to initiate ecosystem-based adaptation (EBA) interventions that will store flood water in wetlands, floodplains and depressions (green infrastructure) at several priority sites, build community resilience at these sites, and enable the Government of Pakistan, including all lead provinces and stakeholders to implement & replicate such nature-based solutions for climate resilience.

https://twitter.com/sherryrehman/status/1678625444176822275?s=20

--------

Funding of $77.8 million has been approved for Recharge Pakistan, a project that aims to build the country’s climate resilience and water security, Federal Minister for Climate Change Sherry Rehman announced on Tuesday.

https://www.brecorder.com/news/40252003/778mn-funding-secured-for-recharge-pakistan-project-sherry-rehman

“Good news for Pakistan! Our Recharge Pakistan project, which will be implemented over the next seven years, has been approved today for funding of $77.8mn,” said Rehman in a post on Twitter.

The minister highlighted that the funding includes $66 million from Green Climate Fund (GCF) resources and co-financing of around $11.8 million.

GCF was established in 2010 by 194 countries party to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. It is designed as an operating entity of the Convention’s financial mechanism and is headquartered in South Korea.

“This adaptation project aims to initiate ecosystem-based adaptation interventions that will store flood water in wetlands, floodplains and depressions (green infrastructure) at several priority sites,” said Rehman.

Recharge Pakistan is a joint collaboration by GCF, World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and the Government of Pakistan. As per information available on the WWF website, the project aims to build Pakistan’s climate resilience and water security through cost-effective ecosystem-based adaptation.

“The project will increase water storage and recharge through wetlands, floodplains, and hill-torrents management; promote climate-adapted community-based natural resource management and livelihoods; and forge a paradigm shift to scale up this approach,” read the website.

Last week, Rehman during a high-level meeting with a delegation led by Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, President-designate of COP28 and UAE’s Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology, said a “critical gap” in resources for adaptation and mitigation has been identified by multilateral agencies -amounting to $348 billion or 10.7% of cumulative GDP by 2030.

Despite this, Pakistan is committed to a green energy transition, whereby it will transfer 60% of its energy needs to renewables by 2030 and reduce its projected emissions by 50% until 2030, Rehman said.

Pakistan is actively involved in transitioning the country towards the renewable energy sector and is seeking partnerships in the alternative and renewable energy sector, the minister added.
Riaz Haq said…
Recharge Pakistan Project receives $77.8 million funding boost from the Green Climate Fund, United States Agency for International Development, The Coca-Cola Foundation and World Wildlife Fund | Press Releases | WWF


https://www.worldwildlife.org/press-releases/recharge-pakistan-project-receives-77-8-million-funding-boost-from-the-green-climate-fund-united-states-agency-for-international-development-the-coca-cola-foundation-and-world-wildlife-fund

The new 7-year project brings together a broad set of funders to help reduce the vulnerability of people and ecosystems in Pakistan to the impacts of climate change following the devastating floods of the past year—which submerged one-third of the country and displaced millions. In addition to the GCF funding, the project is supported through a further $12 million investment and technical support from, collectively, The Coca-Cola Foundation, The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and WWF-Pakistan.

The project represents a deep commitment to addressing climate impacts in vulnerable communities and will transform the country’s approach to flood and water resource management in local watershed sites in the Indus Basin river system. Further, by taking a nature-based approach to the problem, it will create benefits to communities beyond climate resilience.

“Recent years have brought an unprecedented series of climate disasters that touched every corner of the globe. The 2022 floods in Pakistan were among the most searing and severe. Our hearts go out to all who lost friends and loved ones,” said Carter Roberts, President and CEO of WWF-US. “The funding announced by the GCF alongside the commitments from The Coca-Cola Foundation and USAID marks a decisive step towards addressing the challenges faced by communities experiencing climate impacts first and worst. And while no intervention can fully protect against future climate disasters, the nature-based solutions funded through this investment will help local communities in Pakistan restore what was lost and build resilience to help withstand our shared climate future. WWF thanks the Government of Pakistan and looks forward to working with them and partners to implement this important initiative.”

Recharge Pakistan is a collaboration among: Pakistan’s Ministry of Climate Change (MoCC); the Federal Flood Commission (FFC) under the Ministry of Water Resources; local communities in DI Khan, the Ramak Watershed, and Manchar Lake; GCF; USAID; The Coca-Cola Foundation; and World Wildlife Fund (WWF). The program encompasses three vital components: demonstrating the effectiveness of ecosystem-based adaptation and green infrastructure, promoting its adoption via an improved enabling environment, and enhancing community resilience in Pakistan's Indus Basin. This will be achieved through:

Restoration and reforestation of 14,215 hectares of forests and wetlands
Rehabilitation 34 km of water flow paths and channels
Development of 127 recharge basins and retention areas
Strengthening the climate resilience of 7 local businesses in the agriculture and forests sectors
Together, project interventions will directly benefit more than 680,000 people and indirectly benefit more than 7 million people.

Popular posts from this blog

Pakistani Women's Growing Particpation in Workforce

Project Azm: Pakistan to Develop 5th Generation Fighter Plane

Pakistan's Saadia Zahidi Leads World Economic Forum's Gender Parity Effort