Why aren’t we recharging our aquifers?

Not much attention being paid to vital aspects of water conservation and management

The current government has taken upon itself the task of building more dams. Many institutions of the state have endorsed this need, instituting a public drive to raise funds for dam building. Yet, not much attention is being paid to other vital aspects of water conservation and management, such as ground water recharge.

Despite claims that Pakistan wastes unimaginable amounts of water each year by letting it flow to the sea, the amount of water which needs to be discharged by our river systems into the sea has been diminishing significantly. The latest scientific report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) backs this assertion. The IPCC has pointed out that at the same time as sea levels are rising, most Asian deltas are sinking. The Asian deltas are at threat due to groundwater extraction, floodplain engineering and the trapping of sediment by dams.

When sea levels rise, salty sea water flows into fresh water rivers and streams, into the soil and even underground water aquifers. In the coastal deltas of our country, where the Indus River meets the Arabian Sea, multitudes of poor people have been pushed to the point of destitution, having lost thousands of hectares of fertile land, and their underground water channels have been contaminated. Seawater intrusion is thus posing an existential threat to our mangroves. Research indicates that rising waters and worsening salinity have serious health impacts as well.

Extensive irrigation systems and damming alter natural river flows into the sea. Severe groundwater depletion is another major problem. While damming helps recharge groundwater supplies, underground water reserves are under major threat around Pakistan. This is because there is no effective regulation of groundwater use, and anyone who can afford to use pumps can draw up as much groundwater as they like.

Pakistan is facing a major water-scarcity challenge. Most of our available freshwater is, of course, not used for drinking. It is the agriculture sector which uses up most of this water. We are, in fact, one of the world’s largest exporters of groundwater through our grains export.

What Chinese investment in agriculture will do to this existing situation is not known. We are thinking that Chinese investments will provide foreign exchange and create jobs, instead of thinking how much water will be used by intensifying farming. Will Chinese investment in efficient water use offset the amounts of crops they intend to grow? Will crops grown with Chinese involvement be less water-intensive than the water-guzzling sugar or rice being grown in Pakistan already? There is hardly any information available about these issues.

Recharging our water aquifers is one way to help contend with our impending water crisis. Back in 2016, the Punjab government began a four-year project for recharging aquifers as part of its groundwater management and to develop the economical and sustainable technology for aquifer recharging. This project was meant to be implemented by the irrigation department. One wonders what the results of this project have been, and whether there are plans to learn from and to replicate this initiative.

Underground water recharge does not need to be technologically intensive. It can be achieved through injection wells which can help place surface rainwater into underground storage to avoid evaporation losses. These wells can be useful to control saline water coming up into the coastal aquifers as well. But again, how many of these wells, or other similar recharge interventions, have been rolled out across the country? Not many, one suspects.

Also, what has become of the ‘Punjab Groundwater Protection, Regulation and Development Act (2017)’ as it has come of the ‘Punjab Groundwater Protection, Regulation and Development Act (2017)’? Has it been implemented? If not, why not? These are questions that our policy and decision-makers should take notice of.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 18^th, 2019.

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