MULTAN-About 40 percent colossal loss of water takes place in the century old watercourses because of their poor maintenance and aging across the Punjab province, an agriculture officer disclosed.
The tertiary canal commanded irrigation system irrigates 37.46 million acres of land through about 58,000 watercourses in Punjab, said Naveed Asmat Kahloon, assistant director agricultural information while talking to The Nation.
He said that this is resulting in severe shortage of irrigation supplies at the farm level that is being further aggravated due to escalating pressure on agriculture because of rapidly increasing population.
In addition, there is another 10.11 million acres of land outside the canal commands, which is irrigated by about 200,000 tube-wells as well as water lifting systems, farm dug wells, streams, nullahs etc.
“Since inception of On Farm Water Management programme, about 44,000 watercourses have been remodeled and reconstructed according to engineering design in the canal commanded areas of the Punjab. The intervention has generated significant economic, financial, social and environmental benefits,” he added.
He further stated that main causes of water losses in watercourses are seepage, spillage and side leakage resulting from irregular profile and zigzag alignment of banks, with many points of weakness, silt deposition, causing restrictions in flows and overtopping, shrubs, vegetation and trees growing in watercourse right of way, varying cross sections of the conveyance channel, frequent bank cuttings and plugging for water diversion, damage caused by rodents and animals.
He emphasised that these losses can be minimised by adopting watercourse improvement procedure which consists of complete demolishing of community channel and its rebuilding / re-aligning according to the engineering design.
He said that salient impacts of watercourse improvement are annual water saving (acre-ft) 122%, improvement in crop yields 2-15%, increase in cropping intensity 4%, saving in irrigation time 28%, expansion in irrigated area 21%, reduction in labor for irrigation 50%, enhancement in farm incomes 15%, decrease in conveyance losses 39%, curtailment in saline area 87%.
He said that the government of Punjab was providing entire cost of construction materials besides providing technical guidance while the farmers were required to contribute entire labor costs for improvement of the watercourses. http://nation.com.pk/national/01-Dec-2016/40pc-punjab-water-goes-to-waste
40pc Punjab water goes to waste: Report in The Nation, December 01, 2016
Published in Pak Media Report
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