Creation of
Conditions Conducive for Effective Water Conservation Practices:
Water conservation as defined in the literature is described as the minimization of water loss or wastage; the preservation, care and protection of water resources and efficient and effective use of water. In my opinion, when water is conserved either by active and effective watershed management or by constructing new dams to save water going waste to sinks, it is generally termed as supply side water management. This aspect has been already discussed under supply side water management.
In
general, efficient and effective use of water concerns the end-users of water.
We have a great knowledge base for water conservation at users’ level when we
look at say domestic and industrial subsectors of water use. In these cases,
new ideas and innovations have been practically implemented to show how water
surplus can be secured within existing supplies for additional water users. For
example, according to an internet based report, “the City
of Tampa Florida installed 15,300 low flow toilets between 1993 and 1999,
resulting in a water savings of .44 million gallons per day (mgd). That’s
enough water to serve an additional 5,000 customers a day!" Trading of
sufficiently treated industrial wastewater and sewage water for freshwater in
the Israeli agriculture sector is another example of water conservation by the
water users. In the industrial sector of our next door neighbor, according to
an internet source,” a fertilizer plant at Goa reduced water consumption by 50
percent in response to higher water prices. The Goa plant now uses 10.3 m3
to produce 1 ton of nutrient, paying $0.12 per m3. In contrast, a
similar plant at Kanpur pays $0.01 per m3 but uses 24.35 m3
per ton of nutrient.”
Of course, the irrigated agriculture
sector uses by far the most available freshwater, around 90-97 % in the Asian
context. If proper conditions are created for effective water demand management
for the end-users, there is a huge potential of sparing huge quantities of
freshwater for either bringing additional area under cultivation or increasing
cropping intensities within limited landholdings.
Pakistan has made tremendous
progress in creating conducive conditions for water conservation at the users’
end. Since the early seventies, different water management projects have been
undertaken. To improve water use efficiency, the following few important
innovative activities have been tried:
- Watercourse
lining / improvements to improve water conveyance efficiencies;
- Precision
land leveling first by manual control and then by LASER to eliminate local
undulations within fields to enhance irrigation efficiencies;
- Introduction
of better designed gravity irrigation application methods (like level
basin-borders, basin-furrows and bed-and -furrows) to avoid over
irrigation that usually occurs under the traditional field flooding, which particularly occurs at the start
of the irrigation season;
- Experiments
are being conducted to introduce pressurized irrigation methods like the drip
water application technique for point irrigation aimed at further water
saving by limiting the area to be watered;
- Promotion
of zero-tillage to save time, energy and water in areas such as wheat-rice
zones;
- Demonstration
of package of improvements like watercourse lining, land leveling, proper
design of water application method, precision crop planting, use of high
yielding seeds, proper fertilizer applications and irrigation scheduling
for many times higher water productivity; and
- Treatment
of dominantly sodic groundwater either to apply exclusively or to augment
canal water supplies for a safer additional source for irrigation.
Of course, over the last four
decades, there have been well-intended efforts to save water by improving water
use efficiency at the lower-end of the irrigation system in this country.
Watercourse lining activity has been implemented at the national level to
reduce head-tail differences by increasing water supplies along the improved
conveyance systems. Similarly, even at a limited scale, precision land leveling
controlled by LASER technology is making its existence felt. Other stated
activities could not go beyond testing and trial stages. These project based
activities were administered as individual inputs and hence they were not
introduced to assess for verifiable outputs as tangible water savings or as
maximized water productivity.
In view of the awareness created and
acceptance of new innovative ideas for efficient water use, there is a need to
move on to the next stage where water use projects or programs are designed to
deliver outputs either in the form of visible water savings or enhanced
productivity and profitability per unit of water allocated to the farmers. In
the first case, we need to have either on-farm or off-farm water storages to
see physical savings or adjustments of water rights where saved and stored
water is traded to create a market for delivering adequate amounts of water for
growing crops in the vicinity. Unless we produce visible water savings, these
improvements will remain hearsay and hence, remain invisible water savings or
dry water savings[1].
In the second case, by implementing
the whole package of required inputs of higher crop productivity, we secure
results of improved water efficiency by the end-users to enhance profitability
per unit water applied at a farm or field level. How can there be enhanced
water productivity if we remain emotionally attached to the old wild flooding
irrigation systems like Punchoo or
where too many water applications require surface drainage? In short, water
demand management by improving water use efficiency in agriculture must deliver
tangible outputs that are very visible and solid for everyone to see and
acknowledge.
There are other more sophisticated
ways to reduce demand for water in our environment of water scarcity: Why can’t
we consider importing virtual water as Israel did 50 year back? If Israel can
decide in 1960 not to grow cereal crops by importing cereals to buy in virtual
water (which amount to double the amount freshwater available in Israel), why
can’t we do the same? Why not go beyond even that by either dropping or
replacing tropical crops with those crops that suit our arid environment and
demand less water? Colossal challenges demand daring policies aimed at a
paradigm shift to a kind of agriculture that suits an arid and semi-arid
environment with scarce water resources. If Israel can buy-in virtual water
almost equivalent to twice the amount of freshwater available in the country,
what would it mean for Pakistan if the stated water and crop choices are made a
part of a new enforceable policy to meet the challenges of the emerging water
crisis? It is mind-boggling to think of the water savings that could result.
Wiser and proactive nations initiate
activities that may materialize in years to come. For example, water demand
management requires effective control for a measured amount of water to be
delivered to water users. For domestic and industrial sub-sectors, this only
requires us to install flow meters to document the quantity of water delivered
to water users. Water charges can be either subsidized or real ones and they
can then be assessed based on volume delivered as is done for electric power or
natural gas supplied to individual consumers or commercial entities. This
assessment procedure is easier because the pipe-system is already in place and
we only need to install meters for measuring water that gets consumed within a
specified period.
However, with the gigantic
irrigation system that we have in our country, it will be difficult and very
expensive to install a similar pipe-delivery system as is used in the domestic
and industrial sub-sectors. Perhaps in the distant future, we may be forced to
do as has been done in some developed countries, like Israel, with extremely
scarce water resources. To meet this potential switch over, as severe water
scarcity is already here to reckon with, it will be wiser to introduce this
system of water delivery by pipes within the command areas of mini, small and
medium dams and later desert areas that come under cultivation. The
same experience and information generated, if successful, can then be extended
to main canal areas if we are pushed to have necessary infrastructure, like
pipe-delivery system with flow measuring devices, for water demand management in the distant
future. It may seem like a crazy idea at this stage, as it would require
massive infrastructure overhaul, but struggle for survival under depleting and
degraded water resources may force us to consider this option. Hence, we need
to let this option stay in the back of our minds while considering strategic
possibilities.
[1]
Former DG of International Water Management Institute, Dr. David Seckler, used
this term to indicate paper savings that are not real.
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