The calamitous effects of global warming on irrigated agriculture and the reduction of 40% surface water availability

Problems discussed with promising solutions

•         Main report explains water reduction by 40% due to glacial melting in the second permanent phase of global warming causing desertification of Sindh and Punjab

•         Besides this, there is another 50% water wastage in the 150 years old, obsolete, incompatible and wasteful supply-based canal irrigation system. It needs replacement by the demand-based canal irrigation system

•         Net water available for agriculture in the second permanent phase of global warming would be 35 maf out of 142 maf that comes to 25%. This would cause desertification of the Indus basin- the food basket of Pakistan. It needs mitigation as suggested in the report.

•          About 60% of land in the Indus basin suffer due to salinity, sodicity and water logging to various degrees as no sub-surface tile drainage is provided to evacuate injurious drainage effluent. This will destroy land. Drainage is vital part of irrigation.

•          About 45 maf of the injurious drainage effluent is used for irrigating lands in the Indus basin that injects about 200 million tons of injurious salts. The use of drainage effluent for irrigation is in violation of the Canal and Drainage Act of 1887. This injurious practice would render the Indus basin as saline waste by the year 2040.

•          Solving the dilemma whether to continue the use of 45 maf of the injurious saline drainage effluent for irrigation use in the Indus basin or stop it and provide sub­surface tile drainage to evacuate salinity and reclaim land and maintain salt and water balance in the root-zone of crop.

•          How to meet the food requirements when the population of Pakistan at the end of first phase of global warming by the year about 2040 would be about 32 crores and the land and water resources reduce by more than 50%?

•          Problems in the first phase of global warming need their promising solutions

•          Problems in the second permanent phase of global warming essentially require their probable solutions

•          Studies to be conducted by the Planning Division on water reduction to avoid the desertification of the Indus basin - the whole of Sindh and major part of Punjab due to global warming and glacial melting. This is alarming and needs mitigation. Other relevant studies must also be conducted on issues as discussed in the report.

•         List showing technical definitions of Irrigation, Leaching, Drainage and Water Management. The definitions convey correct technical sense for conceiving correct project concept with its vital parts and vital functions. Unfortunately these water projects are not planned to follow their technical definitions. This is why, SCARPs, NDP, irrigation, drainage, storage, watershed management and water management projects have failed or did not achieve their objectives.

•         Modern agricultural practices require power as a vital input of agriculture, therefore hydropower must be produced where ever possible by constructing dams and barrages

•         The agriculture scientists are unaware that they direly need proper infrastructures consisting of sub-surface tile drainage system to reclaim saline and water logged land and the demand-based canal irrigation system to make water available as and when needed in proper doses. Water and salt free land are the basic and vital inputs of agriculture but the agriculture scientists never demanded these facilities from irrigation department. The PARC scientists therefore carry out research in a wrong direction to seek other solutions for these problems. They have complicated the matter of the interaction of land, water and crop rather solving it practically on ground.

•         Pakistan has no means to implement vital and costly projects of environment improvement to mitigate the adverse effects of global warming as discussed in this report. Therefore, it is imperative to invite foreign and local investors to invest in land, water and power development to avoid the desertification of Sindh and Punjab and to mitigate the incoming famine conditions due to glacial melting and global warming. The colossal development would need the formation of cooperative societies by the landowners and the investors under the patronage of the Government of Pakistan. Therefore revolutionary laws must be enforced and the investors assured to take away their share of profit as discussed in the report.

•         Let the current many problems facing Pakistan not eclipse the gravest problem of the global warming on earth as that would cause the annihilation and extinction of the people of this area.