Pakistan is an agricultural country and almost 70% of the population is, directly and indirectly, involved with the agricultural sector. Agriculture is known as the backbone of the Pakistani economy. Pakistan holds 79.61 million hectares of total geographical area, while the cultivable land is only 22.03 million hectares and area under irrigation is 19.02 million hectares.
Water is the most important natural resource on this planet and Pakistan has its abundance in the form of the world’s largest Indus irrigation basin. No one can overstate the importance of water. The worth of water economy in Pakistan is $300 billion.
For example, Karachi city’s water economy is equivalent to $515.10 million per year which is handled by water tanker mafia. There are 19 barrages in Pakistan (Ferozepur, Sulemanki, Islam, Balloki, Marala, Trimmu, Panjnad, Kalabagh, Sukkur, Kotri, Taunsa, Guddu, Chashma, Mailsi, Sidhnai, Rasul, Qadirabad and Marla).
But water security is a big issue. Pakistan is a developing county and the growth of its agricultural sector depends on natural rivers as well as manmade irrigation channels by over the years for availability of water, the available water irrigation system in Pakistan till now is known as the best irrigation system.
Water is not only used in agriculture, but it is also a source of the living organism, development of industries, energy, transport and food security. Therefore, for the assurance of water availability investment is needed to stimulate economic growth, keep food secure for a fast-growing population, and protect the environment. Economic growth has its own consideration and arguments.
On one side, it induces water availability but on the other side, it generates resources to ensure water availability through Dams in order to cope with different water-related problems such as floods or shortage of water. Recently published a new World Bank report entitled: Key reform to improve water security and productivity.
There is an urgent need for Pakistan to reform water policies towards the efficient use of available water resources in order to attain more economic growth, food security, and environmental issues.
Although Pakistan has a great land structure as well as an irrigation system but the use of 80% water to cultivate only four major crops (rice, wheat, sugarcane and cotton) and it contributes only 5% in the total gross domestic product (GDP).
In the case of poor management of water annually reported cost about 4% of GDP, round about $12 billion. This cost includes sanitization, the supply of water, droughts and food due to poor sanitization coronial disease which kills almost 40000 children annually.
According to a report by Dr Khan entitled: Pakistan’s water economy: getting the balance right stated that in the last 30 years, upstream and downstream an average water flow was recorded 183 and 93 million-acre feet.
It is estimated that the products available from groundwater recharged from the river and extensive drainage system are about 50 million acre-feet. Now the main question is whether this available water is enough for cultivated, drought and Barani areas for cultivation and other consumption? Is it true that most of the water escapes from Kotri barrage to the Arabian ocean?
The available two large Dams such as Mangla and Tarbela Dams of Pakistan’s capacity of holding water was 14 million acre-feet, but this capacity is decreasing over time due to increased sedimentation. Is it compulsory for Pakistan to develop the other dams for saving escaping water into the ocean and make the surety of water?
The demand for available water increasing gradually due to increasing urbanization and population but the availability of water is decreased from 5260 cubic water to 1000 cubic water in 2018 from 1947. By the visualization of literature reported that among 48 Asian water shortage countries Pakistan reached 46% only Katbiri and Afghanistan lave lower water security index.
The shortage and quality of water are not only alarming for the agricultural industry, but it is also the significantly alarming situation for the energy sector, food security and economic development of the nation. Due to climate changes, in the last decade after every two year, there has been a heavy flood in Pakistan but unluckily, we are unable to store floodwater because of the shortage of Dams and available dams are filled with sedimentation.
The close visualization of Kotri barrage the average, maximum and minimum water reported 27, 03, and 97 million acre-feet. Two decades ago, water was escaping in the ocean when the supply of water in lower steam was higher but slowly it decreased and now the ocean is escaping available land resources because of too much salt in ocean water. From Sindh Indus river, water does not escape to the ocean due to in downstream of Kotri barrage sedimentation is flying.
It is vital to construct new dams. In the last two decades, the Lahore chamber of commerce industry has welcomed to take action for the Kalabagh dam in Pakistan High Court. Kalabagh dam will provide a pathway towards the development of Pakistan.
Currently, Pakistan is facing a shortage of hydroelectric power, as per the earlier report published entitled: Industry insists Kalabagh dam will benefit all provinces and Kalabagh dam can produce electricity of about 2400-3600mw by national gird with an expected cost of Rs. 2 per kilowatt-hour.
The production of cheap electricity can meet the demand of the fast-growing population and will also save Rs.300 billion annually. Before the construction of Mangla and Tarbela dams, Sindh province gets water about 36.6 million acre-feet but after the construction of Kalabag dam, the supply of water for Sindh province will increase to 40.3 million acre-feet.
Being an agricultural country, Kalabagh dam will irrigate 800,000 acres land which is located in Punjab province. Although many scientists and engineers declared that Kalabagh dam is the green root for food security, environmental and economic development but still Sindh, Baluchistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa are against Kalabagh dam because of fear that after constructing Kalabagh dam, they will face water issues. Pakistan already owned debt about Rs.42.8 trillion equivalents to 80% of its GDP.
If the other three provinces agree to construct Kalabagh dam, Pakistan can easily reduce debt by saving about Rs.300 million annually.
