Author name: Simi Kamal and Zarreen Baqir

Introduction to Water Storage Solutions: Tackling Pakistan’s Growing Crisis Water is essential for life. Clean water is vital for human health, industry, agriculture, and energy production. Yet the world’s water systems face formidable threats due to unsustainable management and climate change. As many as 3.5 billion people could experience water scarcity by 2025, while demand is projected to go by 30% by 2050. Water-related conflicts and political instability are on the rise. Climate change is worsening the problem, intensifying floods and droughts, shifting precipitation patterns causing sea level rise. Already, 90% of natural disasters from 1995-2015 have been water or heat related. Pakistan continues to experience acute water scarcity, largely driven by drought and intensive agriculture. Despite its location in the Indus River Basin, Pakistan is at risk of acute water challenges. Its surface and groundwater sources are increasingly stressed and severe drought conditions persist in parts of the country due to a lack of rain. Due to Pakistan’s diverse geography, rainfall tends to vary significantly from region to region. Much of the country is arid or semi-arid, with three-quarters of Pakistan receiving less than 250 millimetres of rain per year and droughts are common in many areas. In Sindh and Balochistan, severe drought conditions have been caused by a lack of rain during the winter and monsoon rainfall periods. The rate of ice melt has also been affected by climate change, creating a greater risk of flooding and extreme water cycle variability. Snowmelt and glacial runoff also contribute between 35 to 40 % and 25 to 35 % of Indus Basin River flows, respectively, making their contribution indispensable to Pakistan’s hydrological cycle.[i] The situation is made worse by Pakistan’s rate of water usage, which is the fourth highest in the world, while its water intensity rate (the amount of water used per unit of GDP) is the highest in the world. According to the German watch, Global Climate Risk Index, Pakistan is counted amongst the top ten countries that are most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. In addition, the total number of people living below the poverty line are 88 million, which is approximately 39.2% of the total population of Pakistan.[ii] Pakistan has an extensive agriculture sector, which uses flood methods of irrigation to grow water-intensive crops, using up to 97% of all surface water and more of the groundwater. The water infrastructure in Pakistan is outdated and in poor condition, which leads to high conveyance losses, while little is stored because of a lack of reservoirs and sediment build-up in existing facilities. Therefore, reservoirs are needed at all levels and have to be of all sizes, especially in barani areas, which are areas dependent on rain and without irrigation. While water storage at a large scale is already being addressed by the government through prioritizing the building of dams, it is the small storage capacity which can directly reach the poorest that we need to focus on. Due to limited state resources and investment, barani areas are some of the poorest regions in Pakistan. Therefore, it is important to look at low-cost solutions to supplement water storage in Pakistan with the goal of providing benefits to the poorest of the poor in the country and as a buffer against increasing climatic variability. One of the low-cost solutions is construction of small and large ponds which are a reliable and economical source of water. [iii] History of Pondage in South Asia Ponds have historically been part of the hydrological landscape of the South Asian region, depending on the topography and climate. A study of regional water resources systems illustrates many traditional structures. For example, in the arid climate of Balochistan and the Kutch peninsula, there is archaeological evidence for wells and stone dams to store water from local runoff. These age-old structures, known as gabarbands, are sloping stone rubble structures placed to intercept intermittent storm runoff and alluvium from hillsides. There is also evidence of historical water management techniques in a relatively dry hard-rock area of central India that was known as Bundelkhand, which included parts of present-day Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh.  Large ponds (also referred to as tanks) as well as numerous smaller ponds were built after 831 AD at such sites known as Khajuraho and Chanderi, and almost every village had at least one pond. More than 40,000 ponds were built, mostly 250–300 years ago, within the Wainganga river basin in the Bhandara district, to provide irrigation. The district has the largest proportion of irrigated land in Maharashtra, with nearly 80% of the land under cultivation of rice, wheat and sugarcane. Traditional systems of storage were adapted to the different topographic and geological conditions in different parts of the region, small-scale structures at some sites and single structures, depending on the area’s unique climatic conditions. In South India, such as the dry region of Karnataka, ponds were first constructed in the eastern deltas to store the diverted flows of perennial rivers, probably from 600 AD. Around 1300 AD they were the main source of irrigation in the drier interior region. The simple ponds included earthen dams with stone revetment upstream, a sluice with a tunnel closed by a plug, an overflow weir and a canal network.  In Sri Lanka the emphasis was on larger reservoir structures. A large number of small pond cascade systems have been constructed by communal enterprise. It is estimated that a total of 7600 small ponds currently exist in the various provinces of Sri Lanka, and that there are an additional 7700 abandoned ponds with an overall total of over 15,000 ponds, mainly concentrated in the Northwest and North Central Provinces. These systems consist of networks of small reservoirs that are linked and designed to irrigate rice, provide water supply for humans and livestock, and to generate groundwater recharge.[iv] Why is Pondage Important in this Part of the World? The need for increasing agricultural water storage systems (such as ponds) is obvious for Pakistan because of its large areas