Diversion of Canal Water to Cholistan – an opportunity rather than an issue

Muhammad Adnan Shahid

Water being a precious resource has become a source of major conflicts among the neighboring nations, as well as the provincial governments within a federation, being the upper and lower riparian. The current project of diversion of canal for Cholistan and a storm of concerns being raised on it is another example of such conflicts.

Water is the lifeline not only for agriculture, but also for other living needs including the downstream flows to tackle sea-water intrusion and protecting fish culture. Its importance for agriculture can be seen from the fact that cultivated area in Pakistan is around 22.06 million hectares, while the culturable waste represents 8.20 million hectares, which could be used for agriculture if water is made available.

Evolution of Canal Withdrawals and Population Growth

Starting from a population of about 30 million in 1947, the canal withdrawals in Indus Basin Irrigation System (IBIS) of Pakistan were around 60 MAF, which progressively increased to 106 MAF during the period of 1976-81 after the addition of Tarbela Dam. The canal withdrawals dropped to 104 MAF by 2002 and currently stand around 102 MAF due to sedimentation, with population raised to about 220 million by 2025. This increasing population demands synchronized expansion in the agriculture sector, which is linked with enhancing the available surface water supplies in the system.

However, whenever a storage or diversion project is launched, it faces the criticism from lower riparian i.e. Sindh province due to mistrust, as well as from few technical experts who unfortunately negate any water development project and even consider the whole development of canals and reservoirs in the Indus Basin as “destruction” of the basin. However, the data from Indus River System Authority (IRSA) indicates that development of water storage projects and diversion of canals has resulted in increasing the water share and supplies for all the provinces, as can be seen from table 1.

Table 1: Historical and projected provincial allocations of river water supplies (MAF)

Source: IRSA (2011)

Moreover, it is falsely claimed that Punjab uses more water to provide benefit to its farmers, whereas ground realities reveal that small provinces have higher water share compared with that for Punjab considering its large agricultural area. It can be seen from the province-wise water shares shown in table 2 for both Rabi and Kharif seasons based on the agreed percent formula as per the Water Apportionment Accord – 1991. The allegation also becomes unjustified due to the fact that Sindh canals have much higher water allowance than any other canal in the country and this has caused waterlogging conditions in parts of Sindh.

Table 2: Province wise water shares in MAF (1991 Accord)

* Un-gauged civil canals in KP; Source: Briscoe & Qamar (2005)

The Water Apportionment Accord and New Canal Projects

The hue and cry on any new canal project is unfortunate, as no province can draw more water than its percent share, and the new project is always launched being within the allocated shares. This is because the salient features of this accord include protection of existing canal water uses in each province, recognition of need for construction of new storage structures at feasible locations, and allocation of specific minimum escape to sea below Kotri to control sea water intrusion.

Severe impacts of floods, especially in 2010 and 2022, emphasize the need for developing more water storages and flood or seasonal canals to better regulate the flood situations and harvest this valuable resource of water for dry season. This need of future water resources development has already been recognized and agreed by all provinces under para VI of Water Apportionment Accord – 1991.

Climate Change Impacts and the Role of Water Diversion

According to Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD), seasonal variability in rainfall is touching extremes on both sides, indicating the rainfall is concentrating in the post-summer rainy months, while winter months are becoming drier. The development of water resources through enhancing storages and diverting flood or seasonal canals could help mitigate the impacts of climate change in terms of frequent occurrence of floods and droughts.

Hence, diverting a part of Punjab’s waters to Cholistan, especially during high flows/ flood season, should not be a worry for other provinces. Rather, it will greatly help bringing barren land of Cholistan under irrigated agriculture to improve productivity at national scale in addition to uplifting the water-deprived region of south Punjab.

Addressing Misconceptions Regarding Canal Construction in Deserts

Besides the inter-provincial reservations, to be settled by building consensus through data evidence as presented above, various other misconceptions are being created on media regarding the current project of canal diversion to Cholistan.

Firstly, it is said that canals may not flow successfully through the sand dunes of deserts and the project would be just wastage of resources. However, the reality is that any canal is constructed after a proper design and providing requisite gradient for the smooth gravity flow of water. There are various successful examples of desert canals including Thal canal, irrigation canal in Marot-Yazman-Bahawalpur belt and canals network in Rajasthan-India, which have converted the deserts in their commands into green and productive lands.

Second, a myth is created that the High Efficiency Irrigation Systems are being promoted in this region under Green Pakistan Initiative. For these systems, the canal water may not be suitable due to high silt content, which would require number of large ponds for de-silting. The argument is baseless, as the Center Pivot systems, mostly being used in this area and having large opening nozzles, do not clog due to silt. Moreover, the drip system setup established anywhere has hydro-cyclone filter as its mandatory part to easily remove silt from canal water.

Another misconception being created is that canal once constructed as a seasonal or flood canal will then be used to divert waters for the whole year to meet the irrigation demands of the area. There are already several seasonal or six-monthly canals in all the provinces, which remained on the same status after the development of canal command area. People use to get one crop per year in these areas or they use groundwater for second part of the year in case of more than one crop per year.

Groundwater Quality and Recharge in Cholistan

Currently the groundwater quality is poor in major part of Cholistan, resulting in secondary salinity problems when used for irrigation. Flowing of surplus waters during flood or high flows season through these areas would provide good quality water for that season, as well as improve recharge and quality of groundwater for use during the dry season.

World Water Day is celebrated every year on 22^nd March. The theme of WWD-2025 is “Glacier Preservation” reminding us the need for climate mitigation to control high glacial and snow melt, as well as for adaptation through enhancing storages and diversions of peak flows to buffer zones like deserts. Thus, diversion of flood or seasonal canals to deserts in all the provinces should be promoted, which help mitigating the dual challenges of flooding and droughts during the dry seasons.

The writer is a Professor of Irrigation & Drainage at University of Agriculture Faisalabad.