WATER POLITICS

The availability of freshwater resources has largely remained stable over the past few decades, contrary to popular belief, so Pakistan does not currently experience a water shortage.

The State of Pakistan’s Agriculture 2023, a report recently published by the Pakistan Business Council and the Pakistan Agricultural Coalition, made this clear.

The report notes that Pakistan, even when compared to a cohort of nations with comparable levels of water availability, low GDP per capita, a high percentage of water used in agriculture, and the importance of agriculture to GDP, is not producing much value from its water.

Pakistan is one of the few nations where agriculture uses more than 90% of the nation’s freshwater according to the report.

To put this into perspective, the world’s nations use freshwater in the following proportions, on average: 70 percent in agriculture, 20 percent in industry, and 10 percent in municipal uses (drinking water, public uses in towns, etc.). Nevertheless, 93% of Pakistan’s population is employed in agriculture, 6% in industry, and 1% in municipal services.

Severe water waste, the condition and management of the irrigation system, unrestricted groundwater withdrawals, declining water quality, and the impending impact of climate change on Pakistan’s water resources are Pakistan’s real water-related challenges when it comes to the agriculture sector.

The report stated that although freshwater resources were still available, Pakistan’s water consumption remained constant in relation to withdrawals, showing little improvement in water use efficiency. According to the report, increasing water productivity, which is measured by the amount of GDP produced per unit of water, is necessary to reduce the amount of water withdrawn for agriculture.

The report said that Pakistan currently has the eighth-lowest water productivity in the world ($1.38 per cubic metre of water withdrawn from the Indus River Basin and the Indus aquifer).

Pakistan has the fifth-highest global total water withdrawals, according to the World Bank. According to the report, the main cause of low productivity is due to inefficiencies in the water delivery system from the Indus Basin

Irrigation System to the farm gate as well as in the on-farm application of that water to the crop root. Since conveyance losses within the canal system account for an average of 25% losses to the watercourse outlet to the farm gate, only a small portion of the water that is diverted from the Indus River System reaches the crop.

Due to seepage and evapotranspiration, 24 million acre-feet (MAF) of the 95 million MAF of water diverted from the Indus River System is lost in canals.

“From there, an estimated 30% is lost in secondary, frequently unlined watercourses that lead to farms, leaving 71 MAF at the canal outlet (mogha) level. Out of the 71 MAFs available at canal outlets, this means that an additional 21 MAFs are lost until the farm gate.

According to the report, each farm does have a number of fields that are cultivated and receive irrigation water. Farmers draw roughly the same amount of water from the Indus aquifer through tube wells. Due to field losses of up to 35%, farmers only have access to 65 MAF.