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I am working as a Deputy Director (Hydrogeologist) in the Water Resources Planning, Monitoring, and Development Directorate, Irrigation Department, Quetta, Balochistan, Pakistan.
The province of Baluchistan is an arid territory composed of different tectonic plates with separate climate zones, geology, and topographic relief, resulting in changes in temperature, rainfall, rate of evaporation, and geological formations. This diversity in climate, geology, topography, and slope dictates the behaviour of water, resulting in different crops and water dynamics in Baluchistan. These differences are so obvious that the same water supply scheme cannot work for two adjoining sister districts, Gwadar and Kech, where the former is based on surface water and the latter relies on groundwater for domestic uses.
My work experience of more than 12 years in the Water Resources Planning, Monitoring, and Development Directorate, Irrigation Department, Government of Baluchistan, Pakistan, taught me:
Despite efforts and limited resources from the government, the water sector in Baluchistan is facing a number of challenges, like the declining groundwater table due to overexploitation, rapid population growth, particularly in the cities, and growing demands of water from different social sectors, development schemes on recharge areas and piedmont zones, the impact of changing climates with extreme events such as drought and flood, and inefficient use of the available surface water, i.e., out of total average annual run-off (10.793), only 2.22 MAF are conserved, and the remaining 8.571 MAF are wasted downstream.
Additionally, Baluchistan’s demographic features make water governance more complex; 85% of the population lives in rural areas, whereas the percentage of urban dwellers is only 15%. For instance, a water supply scheme in Quetta city (densely populated) costs 200 million for 10000 inhabitants, but on the other hand, in rural areas of Baluchistan, it works only for 2000–2500 residents due to the scattered population. The development of rural areas, which constitute 85% of the population, is based on agriculture (agrarian societies), making them more vulnerable to climate change due to extreme events like floods and droughts.
Climate change is creating serious and arduous problems for water managers in Baluchistan. Climate change caused rural to urban migration, the spread of water-borne diseases like cholera, diarrhoea, typhoid, hepatitis, and gastroenteritis, degraded the quality of surface and groundwater, often led to the destruction of freshwater ecosystems to a significant level Consequentially, biodiversity loss and urban flooding resulted in irreparable damages to public properties and government infrastructure like houses, boats, roads, buildings, bridges, and dams. Floods in rural areas washed away agricultural fields and villages near floodplains.
Drought occurring or developing gradually and almost imperceptibly wiped out rain-fed expensive crops like mango in Nalient and Kulanch localities (Gwadar) and groundwater-dependent agriculture crops like Almond, apple, apricot, and grape in northern Baluchistan's places like Khan Mehtarzai, Ziarat, Harnai, Sanjawi, Pishin, Killa Abdullah, Muslim Bagh, Toba Kakri, Rod Malazai, and Loralai, reduced to a great extent, caused diseases and death of livestock in areas like Chaghi, Nushki, Barkhan, Kachi, Dera Bugti, Lasbela, etc. Seawater intrusion in coastal districts like Gwadar is a common phenomenon during droughts. Drought is creating an additional burden on the already crippling economy of the province. For instance, in 2012, the drought resulted in an additional loss of Rs. 25 billion.
The aforementioned extreme events and their outcomes strongly indicate that climate change is seriously contributing to poverty in the province.
Surface water resources in Baluchistan are mostly non-perennial. Groundwater is the only dependable source of water for domestic, agricultural, and industrial uses. Therefore, like in many other regions, groundwater is central to the water-food-energy-climate nexus in Baluchistan. However, this precious resource is being critically depleted due to overpumping and low intensity of precipitation, and without proper recharge interventions (adaptation), the recharge has not kept pace with discharge.
There is a dire need for improvement or revision in provincial water policies in Baluchistan. Because of limitations in research-based data and taking surface and groundwater in isolation (ignoring an integrated approach). In this connection, I believe policy on the ground will only work when we have research-based information. Therefore, preference should be given to investment in research because, without it, we would be unable to measure the actual problem and policies would not work. For this reason, I am doing my part as a researcher to understand the problems, which are so diverse, and offer solutions accordingly (spatial planning).
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Arabian Journal of Geosciencesno. 1 (2024): 1-10
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