Groundwater Quality And Its Variation
Along Irrigation Canals In Pakistan
Author(s)
M. Latif
Abstract
The Indus Basin of Pakistan is thickly populated and supports a rapidly growing
population of 170 million. More than 90 percent of food production in the
country is contributed by the irrigated agriculture which is presently facing many
challenges and hardships such as salinity, extreme scarcity of canal water,
groundwater mining and degradation of its quality. Water and soil samples were
collected in a canal command area to assess and analyze the quality of pumped
groundwater and soil salinity respectively. Data of crop yield and income of the
farmers was also collected. The results show that electrical conductivity (EC) of
groundwater increases from upper to lower reaches along all the irrigation
channels i.e. the main, secondary and tertiary canals. The groundwater was found
suitable only in about one-half of the command area. In rest of the area
groundwater is either marginally fit for irrigation or it is hazardous (unfit).
Similarly the soil salinity also increased from upper to lower reaches along the
irrigation canals. The soil salinity almost follows the pattern of groundwater
salinity. The crop yield and net income of the water users decreased along all the
irrigation channels (i.e. the main, secondary and tertiary canals) but decrease in
net income was much more than decrease in crop yield. Due to less canal water
supply along the lower reaches of the irrigation channels, the downstream water
users pump more groundwater to meet their irrigation needs. The deteriorating
groundwater quality along the lower reaches of the irrigation channels further
adds misery to the downstream farmers by degrading productivity of their lands
caused by excessive use of saline groundwater. Location of the water users along
the canal irrigation system had significant impact on their crop yield as well as
income and these parameters decreased from head of the irrigation channels
towards their lower reaches. For example, the net income of the tail-end farmers
Keywords
irrigation water, soil salinity, cost of irrigation, income, productivity, groundwater policy and options
Related Book
Other papers in this volume
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