Surface Water Resources:
Irrigated agriculture was, still is, and will remain in future the backbone of Pakistan's economy. Nature has blessed Pakistan with abundant surface and subsurface water resources. Theseresources had been exploited and utilized for agricultural, domestic, and industrial purposes inthe past and will continue to be explored in future. The river Indus and its tributaries provide thesurface water. At the time of independence, we had about 67 MAF water available for diversion,this amount increased to about 85 MAF by the year 1960. At this juncture, the right of threeeastern rivers (Beas, Sutlej, and Ravi) was given to India under Irrigation Water Treaty 1960,during this period, Indus Basin Project (IBP) was implemented with international assistance of the Wold Bank. IBP enabled Pakistan to acquire significant capability of river flow regulationthrough integrated system. By the dint of river regulation-cum-storage facilities of IBP and other irrigation developments on the river Indus, canal diversions progressively increased and peakedto about 108 MAF. The recent statistical data shows that the River Indus and its tributaries provide about 147 MAF during flood season. Out of which nearly 106 MAF is diverted intocanals and is available for agriculture, while, about 32 MAF outflows into sea, whereas, over 8.6MAF is considered as evaporation and seepage losses in the river system. It is worth mentionhere that during last 3-5 years hardly 2-5 MAF water has flown into sea, whereas, at least 12MAF must be left to sea in order to control intrusion of brackish water.
Ground Water Resources:
The Indus plains constitute about 34 million hectares (over 85 million acres) of cultivable land,which is under-lain predominantly by sand alluvium to a considerable depth. Annual recharge toground water system of this Indus plain is estimated around 55 MAF, out of which about 48MAF is within the commands of Indus basin irrigation system (IBIS). Presently, 39 MAF is being extracted annually. Ground water is also found in some rain-fed (Barani) lands, and inter-mountain valleys at depths varying from 100 to 200 ft. During 1950s, large area in the Indus basin became waterlogged and soil salinity increased adversely affecting the agricultural productivity. It was the time when government got involved and took initiatives in the groundwater development. The efforts began to control the twin menaces of waterlogging and salinity by the way of providing drainage facilities. Government embarked on a series of SCARPs in thelate 1950s aimed at lowering the ground water table by providing "vertical drainage" throughlarge capacity deep tube wells. Because of better economic returns, priority was given to locatingSCARPs in the areas with ground water quality suitable for supplemental irrigation, making the drainage a by product in effect. During past four decades, about 15000 SCARP tube wells have been installed by the Government in 57 projects covering a gross area of about 7.7 millionhectares affected land for putting it back into production. Almost 75% of all SCARP tube wellswere installed in the Punjab. About 81% of total tube wells installed in Punjab province arelocated in fresh ground water areas, whereas, remaining 19% tube wells have been installed insaline ground water areas. The tube wells installed in the fresh ground water areas have been pumping water directly into watercourses; thus, they are being used for irrigation in addition tocanal water. However, the tube wells installed in the areas with saline ground water, dischargesaline water directly into drains, from where it is being disposed of.
RIVER INDUS AND ITS TRIBUTARIES:
1. Indus — Tarbela dam, Warsak dam (on the Kabul river near theIndus), Kalabagh barrage (also named as Jinnah barrage) atKalabagh, Chashma reservoir, Tausa barrage, Gudu barrage, Sukkurbarrage, Kotri barrage.
2. Jhelum — Mangla dam, Rasul barrage, Punjnad headworks.
3. Chenab — Marala headworks, Khanki headworks, Qadirabadbarrage.
4. Ravi — Balloki barrage, Sidnai barrage.
5. Sutlej — Sulemanki barrage, Islam barrage
