MULTAN: Directorate of Soil Conservation, Field Wing of Punjab Agriculture Department, developed more than 3000 water harvesting bodies having live storage capacity of 0.1-million-acre feet in Barani areas of the province.
However there was still much potential to conserve rainwater for enhanced agricultural production and alleviating poverty. According to official sources, the country is facing a water crisis mainly due to climate change and mismanagement of available water resources.
According to a report of an international body, Pakistan is the 14th most water stressed country in the world, facing acute water shortage. Moreover, being an agricultural country, this water shortage has direct impact on the national economy which is dependent on agriculture and water to grow crops, he maintained. Therefore, if this problem of water shortage prevails, it might have long financial and ecological impacts on the country.
The report added, due to climate change, the winter season in the country has shrunk from four to two months and the monsoon season has become unpredictable in the past few years.
Around 70% of total rainfall is received during monsoon season (July-September), which causes floods in the country due to lack of rainwater harvesting bodies. So, it is crucial to practice systematic conservation practices and water harvesting techniques to trap maximum rainwater to avoid flood losses and to improve the productivity of crops, especially in “Barani” region where Agriculture is entirely dependent on rainwater.
About Barani tract, it stated that it was consist of 13 districts namely, Rajanpur, D.G Khan, Layyah, Bhakkar, Khushab, Mianwali, Chakwal, Attock, Rawalpindi, Jhelum, Gujrat, Sialkot and Narowal, accounts up to 12.6 million acres of land. However, in spite of all natural and human resource, this region has not been able to develop at par with the other areas of the province due to lack of water storage reservoirs. It results low agricultural productions. Due to insufficient water harvesting bodies, most of the rain water is being wasted which also causes soil erosion at large scale. It is estimated that runoff generated due to precipitation as well as hill torrents causes one billion tons of soil to erode annually in this tract when water flows to its peak during the monsoon season, revealed the agriculture expert.
About performance of Soil Conservation and Field Wing of Agriculture Department, the official sources remarked the Directorate is providing its services to conserve water resources to combat the above-mentioned issues. Under different schemes, various interventions related to water harvesting were developed which were highly beneficial as these enabled farmers to cultivate crops and vegetables all around the year and helped them to maintain their agricultural production even through the drought phase.
About Water Reservoirs, the officials noted that some mini dams were constructed to harvest rainwater from local catchment area having a capacity 20-40 acres feet. It is used to fulfill water requirements for irrigation, livestock and fish culture at local level. Moreover, it recharges ground water aquifers and other environmental conditions. Up till now, the directorate has developed about 1572 mini dams having live storage of about 62880-acre feet.
Similarly, water ponds are highly useful to meet the irrigation requirements round the year which are constructed with storage capacity of 15–20-acre feet. These are also important for livestock as well as fish farming and help in improving ground water table and ameliorating environmental conditions. Moreover, water ponds also play an important role in reducing the rate of soil erosion by decreasing the intensity and quantum of runoff. So far, the Directorate is conservating 37140-acre feet annually.
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