The water emergency prevailing in
the country both due to recurring cycle of floods and drought and the
unsustainable and inefficient use of most water resources has brought home the urgent
need for developing a strategy for the conservation of every drop of water and
its sustainable and equitable use. Water is the most important renewable and
finite natural resources since it is required for agriculture, industry and
domestic purposes.
Surface and
ground water that cross international boundaries present increased challenges
to regional stability because hydrologic needs can often be overwhelmed by
political considerations. While the potential for paralyzing disputes is
especially high in these basins, history shows that water can catalyze dialogue
and cooperation, even between especially contentious riparian. There are 263
rivers around the world that cross the boundaries of two or more nations, and
an untold number of international ground water aquifers.
Water dispute between Pakistan India
Water disputes between India
and Pakistan emerged immediately after the partition of
the sub-continent into two independent and sovereign states. This
partition unfortunately cut
across the already
established and well functioning networks
of irrigation canals and numerous
hydraulic structures with control
structures of the Eastern Rivers falling within the domain
of India and canal network extending into West Punjab and irrigating
some 5 million acres of fertile land.
Soon after the partition, India communicated to Pakistan
of its intention to diver t the waters
of Eastern Rivers for its own
uses. As the control structures were in the Indian Territory, India could
do it easily. This meant that the single
and only economic
base of Pakistan, i.e., irrigated agriculture would be left high and dry. This act of India was tantamount to strangulating Pakistan's agro-based economy
and igniting the fuse for a major war. The sensitivities of this issue were realized by international
communities as well and with the good offices of the World Bank and over a decade
of negotiations, the Indus Waters Treaty was signed in 1960 between India and Pakistan with World Bank as a guarantor and also signatory to the Treaty.
This
treaty sets out the legal framework for the sharing of the waters of six rivers
The
Indus River:
originates in Chinese-controlled Tibet and flows through Jammu & Kashmir.
The
Chenab
originates in India’s Himachal Pradesh state, travels through Jammu &
Kashmir.
The
Jhelum
rises in Jammu & Kashmir and flows into Pakistan, finally joining Chenab.
The Treaty affords India use of
the following three rivers:
The
Sutlej
originates in Tibet, flows through Himachal Pradesh and Punjab before joining
the Chenab.
The
Beas and the Ravi
originates in Himachal Pradesh state and flow into Pakistan, emptying into the
Chenab.
Indian
violation of Indus water treaty
India is currently constructing
three hydropower projects on River Indus. These include Chutak Dam with 59-
meter height, Nimoo Bazgo with 57-metre height and Dumkhar of 42-meter height.
These projects are at initial or middle stages of construction.
Other violations are: India is
irrigating about 800,000 acres in Chenab area which is not permissible; it has
built five more canals in the past 10 years to increase the irrigated area in
the region. Pakistan has also asked India to provide details of its agricultural
acreage, crops and other projects in Kashmir to enable it to make plans in
advance. Low inflows are in evidence in the Rivers Chenab and Jhelum for the
past several months. In particular, the flow of the Chenab has become very low
after the construction of Baglihar Hydropower project.
 |
| Construction of diamer bhasha dam on Indus River |
The expediency of Remote sensing and GIS
for water management
By using high-resolution SAR
(synthetic aperture radar) satellite imagery to estimate discharge in remote,
braided, glacial rivers that may be sensitive to changing regional or global
climate. The sensors used in these and other river studies may be classified
into two types:
(1)
Passive,
in which the sensor receives energy naturally reflected by or emitted from the
earth's surface.
(2)
Active,
in which the sensor provides its own illumination and records the amount of
incident energy returned from the imaged surface.
Passive sensors include all of
the visible and infrared instruments such as the Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM)
and Multi-Spectral Scanner (MSS), the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer
(AVHRR), the Satellite (SPOT) and the anticipated Advanced Spaceborne Thermal
Emission and Refraction Radiometer (ASTER), Moderate-Resolution Imaging
Spectroradiometer (MODIS) and Landsat-7 sensors.
Passive microwave radiometers
such as the Special Sensor Microwave/ Imager (SSM/I) measure the amount of
microwave energy naturally emitted from the Earth's surface.
More recently, improvements in
satellite orbital precision and the increasing availability of multi-temporal
satellite data have enabled the estimation of river stage and discharge from
space. While these techniques are largely in their infancy and not yet used
operationally, three general approaches have emerged:
(1)
Direct
measurement of water surface level from radar altimeter waveform data.
(2)
Determination
of water surface elevations at their point of contact with the land surface
using high-resolution satellite imagery and topographic data.
(3)
Correlation
of satellite-derived water surface areas with ground measurements of stage or
discharge.
Conclusion
Through the use of RS and GIS, both
the countries can surveillance their main rivers and related tributaries. High-resolution
visible/infrared sensors such as Landsat imagery provide good delineation of
flood extent where Clouds, trees or floating vegetation do not obscure the
water surface. Passive microwave radiometers show promise for acquiring
estimates of inundation area over very large rivers or wetlands, but sensor
resolution is coarse and the land-water boundary cannot be located accurately.
Spaces borne synthetic aperture radars (SARs) are not limited by weather
conditions or darkness. So these technologies not only help these countries to
resolve their water dispute but also established a solid foundation to resolve
other conflicts.
PREPARED BY
Hafiz
Ali Imran
M.phil
(space science)
Session
2011-2013
Email: hfz_ali_imran@hotmail.com
Contact No: 0334-4096620
