PESHAWAR: To address the growing water crisis, climate change and poor water management issues, the International Water Management Institute(IWMI) has started the process of geo-tagging tube wells in Mansehra and Charsadda districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
This initiative is being implemented under the Water Resources Accountability Program, which is being supported by the UK Commonwealth and Development Office and the Nexus Gains Initiative of the Consultative Group on International Agriculture Research (CGIAR).
Engineer Muhammad Naeem, Advisor to the International Water Management Institute, told reporters during the meeting that the main objective of this project is to conduct an accurate and scientific analysis of the groundwater situation so that the water crisis can be overcome through effective policymaking.
He said that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is facing multiple challenges such as poor water accounting, unbalanced water distribution, erratic rainfall, melting of glaciers and climate change, which require a coordinated strategy to address.
He said that under this project, which has been ongoing since December 2023, 20 soil moisture sensors have been installed in each district, while four training workshops have been organised for farmers in Mansehra. In these sessions, farmers were made aware of sustainable water use, modern technology and methods of achieving higher yields.
According to him, the International Water Management Institute is also collecting soil samples to help farmers select suitable crops based on the chemical and physical properties of their land. For efficient distribution of water, the International Water Management Institute is also collecting water demand data based on the needs of agriculture, industry, domestic and livestock, with the help of which an integrated water allocation system can be created in the future.
He said that under the project, the installation of two modern scientific instruments, Eddy Covariance (EC) Flux Towers, is also being implemented, which will be helpful in accurately monitoring crop water use, energy flow and carbon emissions. On this occasion, Assistant Team Lead Engineer Kifayat Zaman of the Water Resource Accountability Program Khyber Pakhtunkhwa said that these towers will play a key role in increasing agricultural sustainability and monitoring environmental impacts.
Engineer Kifayat Zaman said that the per capita water availability in Pakistan was 5600 cubic meters in the 1950s, which has reduced to 930 cubic meters per year in 2024, which is enough to declare the country as suffering from severe water shortage. He said that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is allocated 8.78 million acre feet of water, but due to a lack of infrastructure, only 5.97 MAF is used, while 2.81 MAF of water is wasted every year.
According to the International Water Management Institute, groundwater levels in the province are rapidly declining while natural recharge is inadequate. To address these issues, measures such as water accounting, development of governance management information systems, irrigation demand management, and equitable multi-sectoral water allocation have become essential.
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