Spate irrigation a solution to water problems

ISLAMABAD:

Spate irrigation is the largest source of irrigation after conventional irrigation based on Indus basin but is neglected from the mainstream development. Farmers can irrigate 1.7 million hectares through spate irrigation out of its total potential of 6.935 million hectares of land in Pakistan.

These expert observations were shared with participants on Thursday at the launch of a book titled, ‘The Dry Side of the Indus”, published by Vanguard and co-authored by Rina Saeed, Karim Nawaz, Frank Van Steenbergen, Arjuman Nizami and Shahid Ahmed.

The book explores the issue of spate irrigation, the form of water management that diverts seasonal spate or flood water for irrigation through building temporary earthen, brushwood, stone made dikes in the river bed of hill torrents.

Water experts said Pakistan had great potential for spate irrigation development for sustained agriculture which now deserves special attention of the provincial and federal government and should be invested upon for enhanced food security because horizontal growth in Indus-based irrigation has reached a saturation point.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 20^th, 2015.