Oral Presentation NCGRT/IAH Australasian Groundwater Conference 2019

Groundwater regulation-governance-management nexus: a case study from Punjab, Pakistan (220)

Ghulam Hassan 1 2 3 , Catherine Allan 1 , Jay Punthakey 4 , Michael Mitchell 2 , Saleem Akhtar 3
  1. School of Environmental Sciences, Charles Sturt University, Albury , NSW, Australia
  2. Institute for Land, Water and Society (ILWS), Charles Sturt University, Albury , NSW, Australia
  3. Irrigation Research Institute (IRI), Government of the Punjab, Irrigation Department, Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan
  4. Ecoseal Pty Ltd, Roseville, NSW, Australia

Groundwater is key for societies that depend on irrigated agriculture for their food and fibre. Humanity is using water that has been stored underground for millennia and which cannot be easily replenished. An estimate from 2010 suggests global extraction of groundwater from aquifers is 982 km3 per year, with the agricultural sector using 70%. Pakistan is the 4th largest user of groundwater, with annual extraction of around 65 km3. Feeding Pakistan’s growing population, currently at 208 million, is moving the country’s  status from water-stressed to water-scarce. The aquifer underlying the Indus Basin in Pakistan, one of the largest underground water reservoirs in the world, caters for drinking, industrial, commercial water needs of Pakistan, and especially irrigated agriculture, which uses around 90% of pumped groundwater. This groundwater is estimated to contribute 40-45% of Pakistan’s irrigation water requirements. As groundwater is a hidden, common pool resource, its governance has faced socio-political challenges for centuries, but the need for improving institutional frameworks is becoming urgent. This paper traces the development of institutional and regulatory frameworks in Pakistan’s Punjab province, from the Canal and Drainage Act (1873) to the National Water Policy (2018) and the Punjab Water Policy (2019). It introduces findings from a current ACIAR funded project that is using case studies to explore how to improve groundwater management for enhanced farming family livelihoods. The project is identifying opportunities using improved groundwater modelling, enhanced networking among researchers and managers and case study based stakeholder forums. It is anticipated that with opportunities identified, and capacities built, this project may help support the development of an holistic policy framework crucial for effective groundwater governance in Punjab and across Pakistan. The project has highlighted the importance of including contributions from both community stakeholders and sound science and modelling when formulating and implementing policy.