Alarming news from NASA: Groundwater basin under India Pakistan sinking rapidly.

[[Bregs]]

Please look at the cost of drip irrigation. Small scale farmers could hardly make ends meet. It maybe possible for large scale farmers only.
Desalination plants need energy to run and is the most expensive way to get clean water. Pakistan cannot afford this.

Solution is simple as some others have said. Build large scale reservoirs and there are many possible sites. Build flood control reservoirs. Update the canal system by lining them.
These two measures will be enough to insure that there is water in canals all year around so the farmers won't need to pump water from aquifers. This in turn will reduce reliance on aquifers hence they will recharge with rain water etc.

Some control over the growth of population will also help as Pakistan has a set amount of water from rains and snow/melting glaciers.

Israelis have succeeded a lot by drip water irrigations in deserts of there country and here no major push for this water saving irrigation techniques for our farmers

 

[airmarshal]

right now there are floods in Pakistan as is always in the part of the year.

Problem is priorities. Noora priorities are Metro and subway trains. There, there is commission to be made and high impact election project.

But this is ruining the country. We need dams and badly need them. they will avoid floods and will store water to mitigate drought when there is little rain.

Just like energy crisis in Pakistan currently, which was predicted to become an issue, the govt then did not take any notice. Once it became an issue, its a money minting bonanza and election gimmick for politicians.

I wont be surprised when we hit drought in a decade, politicians of PMLN and PPP type will find another election slogan and money making project, out our miseries.

Then we will ask jiyalas and nooni toons what criminal negligence they indulged in and we will be spun around in circles. WTF is with this country!

 

[Shah01]

Israelis have succeeded a lot by drip water irrigations in deserts of there country and here no major push for this water saving irrigation techniques for our farmers

You are comparing Pakistan to Israel.... Do you know how they achieved this? Please read about the way that nation work.... How much effort went into transforming the dessert and the marsh. How much research they have done in farming and other things. Looks at the number of reservoirs they have built. It was not done by one person but by the whole nation as one.... You think Pakistan can do that ? Not today or in near future.
Don't be fixated on drip irrigation. They large scale farmer can do this own their own. Don't need government to do it for them. There are other ways to reduce water usage. Grow crops which need less water.
Give you example from Israel... They have done extensive research on producing potato from saline water. They have been experimenting on mixing saline water with fresh water to grow different crops. Genetically modified seeds to combat water scarcity and salinity.
In Pakistan the farming land need to be graded and then crops should be grown accordingly.
The dessert can be transformed by planting Olive trees etc with drip irrigation.

 

[Gentelman]

Atleast now these two countries have a real reason to get worried..

 

[kadamba-warrior]

Build more (and massive) water storage above ground so that reliance on the aquifer is reduced.

I don't believe massive dams are the panacea for all our water woos - not all of them, anyway!

Major dams, while addressing a few problems, introduce many more problems of their own and I frankly don't believe, are worth the cost/effort/risk/electricity they produce!

Instead, the effort should be at every farm/village/town level to build small check dams and storage ponds which have enormous potential to harvest rain water and recharge aquifers. Not only do check dams have minimal negative impact on the ecology, but are less prone to politics, less costly to build, less risky, much more widely spread, stop soil erosion, much easier to maintain, don't depend on the flow of major rivers and involve communities like nothing else.

In fact, the advantages of small check dams are just too many to keep a count!

In the 90's there were many such programs back in India where state governments granted loans and grants for willing small farmers to build small check dams and small water storage ponds in every farm. And it was successful to certain extent but I don't know whatever happened to them.

 

[VCheng]

I don't believe massive dams are the panacea for all our water woos - not all of them, anyway!

Major dams, while addressing a few problems, introduce many more problems of their own and I frankly don't believe, are worth the cost/effort/risk/electricity they produce!

Instead, the effort should be at every farm/village/town level to build small check dams and storage ponds which have enormous potential to harvest rain water and recharge aquifers. Not only do check dams have minimal negative impact on the ecology, but are less prone to politics, less costly to build, less risky, much more widely spread, stop soil erosion, much easier to maintain, don't depend on the flow of major rivers and involve communities like nothing else.

In fact, the advantages of small check dams are just too many to keep a count!

In the 90's there were many such programs back in India where state governments granted loans and grants for willing small farmers to build small check dams and small water storage ponds in every farm. And it was successful to certain extent but I don't know whatever happened to them.

Yes, that is why I used to words "more (and massive) water storage above ground" without specifying the distribution. With the needs rising rapidly, the solution will probably need a combination of all types of storage devices.

 

[Shah01]

I don't believe massive dams are the panacea for all our water woos - not all of them, anyway!

Major dams, while addressing a few problems, introduce many more problems of their own and I frankly don't believe, are worth the cost/effort/risk/electricity they produce!

Instead, the effort should be at every farm/village/town level to build small check dams and storage ponds which have enormous potential to harvest rain water and recharge aquifers. Not only do check dams have minimal negative impact on the ecology, but are less prone to politics, less costly to build, less risky, much more widely spread, stop soil erosion, much easier to maintain, don't depend on the flow of major rivers and involve communities like nothing else.

In fact, the advantages of small check dams are just too many to keep a count!

In the 90's there were many such programs back in India where state governments granted loans and grants for willing small farmers to build small check dams and small water storage ponds in every farm. And it was successful to certain extent but I don't know whatever happened to them.

This is fine but Pakistan needs flood control measures and without large reservoirs it is not going to be possible. The majority of the flow of water is during a few months in summer. By all means have small ponds and rain water storage at city/village level but I will stress again that the large reservoirs and flood control reservoirs are the need of the hour together with upgrading of canal system and water channels and lastly water conservation at farm level.

 

[kadamba-warrior]

Yes, that is why I used to words "more (and massive) water storage above ground" without specifying the distribution. With the needs rising rapidly, the solution will probably need a combination of all types of storage devices.

True but some of your "massive" dams haven't been built so far (KBD comes to mind) exactly for the same reasons that I mentioned! They are just too costly to build or too sensitive politically - displacing too many people and submerging vast areas.

Instead, Pakistan (and India too) could have built hundreds of thousands of much smaller dams/check dams accruing far more benefits to smaller communities without even raising hackles.

A classic "losing sight of forests for the trees"!

This is fine but Pakistan needs flood control measures and without large reservoirs it is not going to be possible. The majority of the flow of water is during a few months in summer. By all means have small ponds and rain water storage at city/village level but I will stress again that the large reservoirs and flood control reservoirs are the need of the hour together with upgrading of canal system and water channels and lastly water conservation at farm level.

I agree that Major dams can help control seasonal floods and more importantly also irrigate vast areas and provide drinking water to masses. But to think that Major dams are the answers to all your water problems is not exactly accurate.

My problem with Major dams is that they are too sensitive politically, take too much time, too costly, too risky, submerge too vast lands, displace too many people, lose too much water through evaporation (especially true for arid/semi-arid subcontinental regions), and not very efficient when it comes to increasing water tables uniformly.

Consider the fact that Lake Mead (Hoover Dam in USA) alone loses about 800,000 acre-ft/yr just due to evaporation. That is almost 1 BILLION Cubic Meters of water lost per year just through evaporation alone!! That's not even counting the canal leaks/absorption and transportation losses!

What makes the matters even worse for Major dams is that they don't address issues with runoff and soil erosion - due to short but intense rains that are becoming the norm. In fact, many of the Major dams suffer from silt accumulation that needs massive operations to clean up.

Smaller check dams, due to smaller holding capacity and the vegetation that usually surrounds these types of dams, don't suffer this kind of losses due to evaporation. More importantly, the small dams are very effective in slowing the run off thereby preventing erosion and also raising the water tables right exactly where it is needed.

 

[kadamba-warrior]

Bad agricultural practices waste tremendous amounts of fertile, river water. Those farmers should be encouraged, even forced, to opt for drip irrigation.

Exactly! But it is not just the agricultural practices that need to be changed. Often times, the choice of crop we let our farmers grow, is very unsuitable for these parts of the world.

It is the height of insanity to let a 'few' handful farmers downstream grow extremely water-intensive crops like sugarcane/rice all year while there are many dependent cities/towns that don't get even a drop to drink in summer months!

Instead, political will should be built to ration water usage and raise taxes for the use of water so that wastage is discouraged and the money used for building more reservoirs.

Build desalination plants to convert sea water into usable source for household like cleaning, bathing, cooking etc

These steps need time, effort and some financing. But it's definitely better than living in a period of drought.

This has to be the ultimate long term strategy - which not only permanently mitigates water scarcity but also takes care of rising sea levels due to global warming, to a certain extent.

 

[shah1398]

I still remember we use to find water with just 20 feet of digging about two decades ago in our area n now ppl have to dig beyond 300 feet for long lasting supply.

 

[AZADPAKISTAN2009]

Moon soon rain will fix it .....chill out

Nasa also claimed to have landed on moon once

 

[Bang Galore]

Moon soon rain will fix it .....chill out

Nope. Not unless you are actively recharging.

 

[Thorough Pro]

Thank big water companies like Nestle for pumping out groundwater from India and Pakistan.
Another thank-you to our proud governments for allowing this to happen.

 

[AZADPAKISTAN2009]

I just had a nice big 2 Liter water bottle , chilled , and drank it all

 

[my2cents]

Build more (and massive) water storage above ground so that reliance on the aquifer is reduced.

Start rain harvesting in all homes mandatory. For every borewell in a home or industry, ten rain harvesting pits needs to be sponsored.