THE Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency has agreed to provide technical leadership and free access to its data to help water-scarce Balochistan develop a water resource information system using remote sensing and geographical information system.

The Asian Development Bank, in collaboration with the Japanese government, is supporting water resource assessment and management of two rivers basin. A technical assistance of $1.1 million, financed by Japan Fund for Poverty Reduction, will assist the Balochistan government to assess basin’s water resources and develop priority projects within the two selected basins.

Akhtar Ali, Principal Water Resource Specialist at the ADB while explaining the project, said that the technical assistance will screen and rank four rivers basins, and help select two rivers basins by the provincial government. The basins will be selected on the basis of rapid assessment studies to be conducted this year.

Satellite-based remote sensing technology has large potential to improve methods of surveying and monitoring in a system-based water management approach

On the other hand, the Balochistan government has prepared the pre-feasibility study of the projects where WRIS would be required.

Under the proposed project, in the start a freely available satellite-based water resources information such as rainfall, soil moisture, land surface temperature will be collected and shared by the WRIS in collaboration with JAXA. The WRIS will have a user interface using GIS for sharing the collected data among stakeholders.

The system will integrate the satellite-based remote sensing data, the ground observation data and other dataset into the same system, and visualise the data with base maps for geographic information management and data analysis.

On success the WRIS would be extended covering other provinces and the entire country. The technical assistance will also help processing ensuing ADB loan up to $100m for sustained water management actions.

ADB Country Director Werner Liepach says water situation in Balochistan is getting worse and holistic water management is crucial and so is the water resource information for efficient uses.

An ADB document related to the project says satellite-based remote sensing technology has large potential to improve methods of surveying and monitoring in a system-based water management approach that will strengthen an integrated water resource management specifically in the area where ground observation data is limited like Balochistan. Remote sensing is a technology to observe the earth’s surface or the atmosphere with cameras or sensors mounted on satellites.

Balochistan spreads over an area of 347,190 sq. km with a total population of 13 million. Around 70pc of its population lives in rural areas and depends on agriculture. Agriculture accounts about two-thirds of the provincial domestic product, 60pc of the labour force, and supports several industries by providing raw materials.

However, the agricultural sector suffers from water shortages, frequent drought, and poor agricultural practices, which expose the rural communities to high vulnerability especially women and children who suffer from inadequate domestic water supply. Quetta valley now faces a high water deficit. About 57 per cent of the Balochistan’s water resources comprise floodwater, which is highly unpredictable and significant part of which flows down to the sea.

Pakistan has to increase food production by 40 to 50pc to meet the needs of a projected population of 221m by 2025. However, the country’s annual water availability per capita is less than water scarcity threshold of 1,000 cubic metres per capita in 2015 whereas water variability further intensifies the water scarcity, statistics reveal.

Published in Dawn, Business & Finance weekly, March 28th, 2016