Groundwater prospecting in Pakistan

Groundwater has emerged as an exceedingly important freshwater resource and its everincreasing
demand for agriculture, domestic and industrial uses ranks it as of strategic importance. Global estimates show that groundwater comprises one sixth of the total freshwater
resources available in the world.

Where does underground water come from?

Precipitation that soaks in the ground and trickles downward. Water underground trickles down
between particles of sol and through cracks and spaces in layers of rock.

Pakistan’s major groundwater resource is in the irrigated areas of the Indus Basin, while the
second source lies in the areas outside the Indus Basin.
Canal irrigation was introduced in the Indus Basin about a century ago. Before the irrigation
system the groundwater table was 100 feet below the ground surface in most of the Basin. With
the introduction of the irrigation system, groundwater is now in a range of 5 to 30 feet below
ground surface.

Groundwater Quality

A number of the activities of man pose threats to water quality. Some of these
activities include:

Landfill solid waste disposal, Liquid waste disposal basins, Septic waste infiltration systems,
Highway deicing with chemicals ,Gasoline service stations, Petroleum bulk storage facilities,
Underground storage tanks, Many industrial activities, Livestock feed lots, Urban storm water
infiltration.


An arid country, Pakistan depends heavily on annual glacier melts and monsoon rains. Water from these sources flows down the rivers and out to the sea. En route, there are seepages into the ground, where water-bearing rocks or aquifers absorb and store this water. Many of Pakistan’s glaciers are retreating as a result of climate change. This retreat impacts water supplies to millions of
people. Most parts of the country receive scant rainfall and have little or no access to surface water. Pakistan Water Partnership (PWP) states that in Pakistan the total available surface water is about 153 million acre feet (MAF) and the total ground water reserves are approximately 24 MAF, of which a substantial part has been mined without allowing for natural recharge. Currently estimated at 160 million, the population of Pakistan is set to double in 2.5 decades. This means that the per capita availability of water will decrease. There is likely to be a net decrease, rather than an increase in the country’s water resources, due to a number of factors including population growth, climate change, and exploitation of water. Because of the absence of groundwater management in the private sector, anyone can install a tube well anywhere in his land and can extract whatever amount of water he wants any time without consideration of the detrimental effect of his action on the resource. If the pumping is equal to recharge rate for a sufficient period of time, the water table depth will stabilize somewhere below the ground surface.

Our water resource base continues to be degraded because of pollution, atrophy, verse of surface water and over-exploitation of groundwater. The Indus delta has been reduced to one partially active creek and there is no water flowing downstream of the Kotri Barrage for almost the entire year. Pakistan is dependent on a single river system and we cannot afford to take any more chances with the water/sediment/salt balance of the Indus Basin. The rivers and reservoirs in Pakistan are running dry, the underground water table is receding fast and there is widespread talk of massive water shortages in the country.

RECOMMENDATIONS

A groundwater regulatory framework should be introduced and implemented for the sustainability of groundwater use.

There is need to manage the demand of water.

Low water delta crops should be preferred to high delta crops.

Efficient irrigation methods should be used to irrigate crops.

Recharge of groundwater should be increased by increasing canal diversions, rainwater harvesting and check dams.

Saline water can be used for saline agro-forestry or for alternative agricultural crops.

Energy charges should be proportional to the use of energy for tube wells.

Research on groundwater recharge is urgently required.

References


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bill-chameides/where-has-all-the-water-g_b_778491.html
http://earthsci.org/processes/geopro/ugwater/ugwater.html
http://www.tbl.com.pk/pakistans-water-problems/
http://www.tbl.com.pk/indus-basin-irrigation-system-of-pakistan/
Sind Univ. Res. Jour. (Sci. Ser.) Vol. 41 (1) 47-54 (2009)
The Lahore Journal of Economics 15: SE (September 2010): pp. 187-211
http://cms.waterinfo.net.pk/pdf/wr.pdf





This article was compiled by:



ZAFAR IQBAL ZAFAR
Department of space science
University of the Punjab Lahore
Email: zafarziz@hotmail.com
Phon: 0345-4776066