ON Aug 16, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif asked the chairman of the Water and Power Development Authority to expedite construction of water reservoirs across the country.

When implemented the planned projects would enable the country to better meet the water requirements of various sectors of the economy and also help overcome acute shortages in the coming years.

More dams and reservoirs need to be built to help boost output of both the agriculture and industry and provide clean drinking water to the poor. Such a step cannot be avoided any longer.

However, a more sustainable solution for the populace living in drought-affected areas would be the creation of small reservoirs or ponds to fulfil their basic needs and enable farmers to irrigate their lands. The mini-dams and pond projects can be easily financed by provincial governments producing budget surpluses with development funds often underutilised.

The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) in its latest report has suggested the government undertake the construction of as many water ponds as required in the drought-hit areas of Sindh, to ensure water security to the rural population.

Pakistan’s performance in storing water and creating reservoirs has been disappointing ... the country’s planners and policy makers now have the daunting challenge of increasing its water storage capacity

It has warned that water scarcity in Sindh, particularly in Tharparkar, has reached a point where over one million people are now below emergency-level thresholds. The government should establish strategic water points as part of a more sustainable long-term effort to ensure access to safe water to the affected communities.

Southern Sindh is prone to droughts and Tharparkar is considered a ‘high drought area’ followed by Jamshoro and Sanghar. The drought, the report says, had a negative impact on food security as it caused large reductions in yield and abandonment of cultivation altogether in the most drought-affected zones.

The current spell started in 2013 and has continued since, intermittently, for leaner monsoons.It was most severe in the western and south-eastern Tharparkar regions but the irrigated zones were largely spared by it.

In India, the Kerala state has decided to revive at least 600 ponds and water bodies under a drought relief plan, breaking away from the usual practice of pumping water via tankers in drought-affected areas. The plan envisages cleaning, de-silting and removing waste from ponds and lakes and storing safe water there.

Indian Railways has been running ‘water trains’ from Miraj in western Maharashtra to drought-hit Latur in Marathwada, a distance of nearly 350km, for the past few months. Each train carries about 0.5m litres of water.

Pakistan’s performance in storing water and creating reservoirs has been disappointing. Federal Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal says the country’s planners and policymakers across different sectors now have the daunting challenge of increasing its water storage capacity.

Pakistan requires a minimum storage capacity of 40pc of the water available in the Indus river system throughout the year. Its current storage capacity is only 7pc and is further decreasing due to sediment build-up in reservoirs.This gives Pakistan a stored water supply to meet its needs for just 30 days.

Under the Indus Basin Replacement Works two major dams, Tarbela and Mangla, were initiated. Mangla, built with assistance from the World Bank, became operational in 1967 while Tarbela was ready in 1976. Since then, no major dam or a reservoir, with the exception of Chashma dam, has been added although a few, such as the Diamer-Bhasha dam, are in the pipeline.

A myriad of small dams, mostly of local significance, were initiated in the provinces but many were later abandoned.

In Balochistan, more than 60 small dams were launched but only half of them were completed in 1980s and 1990s. Prominent among them were the Hub dam and Mirani dam. The Sabakzai dam was completed this year.

In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 24 small dams were launched and completed. In Punjab 34 dams were designed but only three could be completeD And in Sindh only four were designed though none were launched.

From the major dams, due to excessive sediment in the river water inflow, all the three reservoirs, Tarbela, Mangla and Chashma are now rapidly losing their capacity. By the year 2025, these reservoirs will lose 37pc (6.27MAF) of their capacity, which amounts to losing one mega storage project.

Because the source of the Indus River water to Tarbela dam is glacial melt which has sediment, the annual suspended sediment load is about 430m tonnes. The useful life of the dam and reservoir was estimated to be somewhere around fifty years which may increase to 85 year for sedimentation is considered to be much lower than predicted.

Direct rainfall contributes less than 15pc of the water supplied to crops. The major user of water for irrigation is the Indus Basin Irrigation System. About 105m acres feet (MAF), out of 155MAF of surface water, is being diverted annually to irrigation, while around 48MAF is pumped from groundwater.

Hence, to save and utilise available water, construction of additional storage facilities is essential for facilitating irrigated agriculture, which supports about 70pc of the population of Pakistan.

Published in Dawn, Business & Finance weekly, September 5th, 2016