sprinkler or drip irrigation in KPK

thal canal in Pakistan

Irrigation is the man-made supply of water to the land to encourage vegetation. It is a substitute for inadequate or erratic rainfall and is extremely essential for arid regions where there are no rivers and also in humid regions to improve crop output. In Pakistan, 75% of the agricultural land is under irrigation. Three major water sources in Pakistan are rain water, ground water and rivers.

Irrigation system is not something new. Since olden days, people had devised various methods to water their fields. Some traditional methods of irrigation are Persian Wheel, Charsa and Shaduf. Karez is another traditional irrigation system practiced in Baluchistan only. Karez is a horizontal canal located mainly on the foot hills and it brings the under ground water to the surface. Modern advancements in the irrigation system are the perennial canals and tube wells.Pakistan is basically a dry country with the River Indus and its tributaries being the main source of water supply. Dams both large and small and barrages have been built on the Indus and its tributaries. Large dams such as Tarbela Dam and Mangla Dam are multipurpose plans which not only store water, irrigate lands but also generate hydro electricity. Small dams like Khanpur Dam, Rawal Dam and Hub Dam supply water for agriculture, industrial and domestic purpose and act as a reservoir as well. A hilly terrain is required to build a dam. Barrages on the other hand are built on flat places they also supply water for irrigation purpose and industrial and domestic use. Some barrages are Sukkur Barrage, Guddu Barrage, Kotri Barrage, and Chashma Barrage.

Canals are taken out from rivers, dams and barrages. Pakistan has one of the largest canal irrigation systems in the world. The Inundation canals are taken from rivers and they receive water only when the water level in the rivers is high such as during floods. The perennial canals are taken from dams and barrages and supply water to the fields through out the year. In Pakistan there are 3 large dams, 85 small dams, 19 barrages, 12 inter link canals, 45 canals and 0.7 million tube wells to meet the commercial, domestic and irrigational needs of the country.

Irrigation System in Pakistan

Pakistan falls in the category of dry countries but it is not as dry as some of the deserts countries in Africaand

Asiaare. Pakistangets much less rain than most of the countries of the world do. But fortunately we have an extensive

network of rivers and a canal irrigation system built to manage river water for agriculture use. Pakistan’s irrigation system is known as one of the best in the world.

In Pakistan 70% to 75% of the land where crops are grown depends upon irrigation. Various methods applied

for irrigation are rain, cattle driven wells and machine wells, commonly known as tube wells, canals and small

underground canals known as karez.

Three types of canals are found in Pakistan:

1 – Perennial Canals: Water through these canals is supplied throughout the year. Important canals inPunjab are

Upper Bari Doab, Lower Bari Doab,SidhnalCanals, Upper and Lower Chenab Canals,UpperJhelumCanal has been

taken out from Trimmu Headwork and the canals taken out from Islam, Sulaimanki and Panjnad.

2 – Non-Perennial Canals: These canals run in summer and rainy seasons fromRavi. Haveli canals come out

fromChenab and some from Sutlej Rivers.

3 – Inundation Canals: These canals run during seasons when the water level rises in the river. Old canals

fromIndus andChenab fall in this category.

Karez & Rood Kohi: Small underground canals are dug in the dry and high temperature zones in Balochistan.

These are only in Quetta-Pishin Districts. They are safe from evaporation because they are underground. Thousands of hectares are irrigated by them. This underground canal system is called Karez.

WHAT IS A KAREEZ / KARIZ / KAREZ (QANAT)?

A kareez (کاریز) (also spelt karez / kariz and later called qanat in Arabic) is a combination below and above ground channel system used to bring water to a settlement or fields from a natural source, say an aquifer, mountain spring or lake. Many of the kareez / qanats are ancient and their history is intertwined with the history of Aryan lands. Importantly, the system was sustainable and did not exhaust underground aquifers.

The kareez are difficult, laborious and time consuming to build and maintain. However, without them normal life in the more arid regions of the Aryan lands and the later Persian empire, including Egypt, would have been untenable. In these lands, as well as the Aryan's Turkic neighbours in Kazakhstan and the Tarim river basin in what is today the far western Chinese Uygur province of Xinjiang - the kareez was, and in many cases still is, the principal method of water supply and distribution. After the Arab conquests of the Aryan lands, the Arabs called the system a 'qanat'. However, the system continued to be called kareez in the eastern Aryan lands including the neighbouring eastern Turkic lands.

Constructing the kareez as an underground water channel rather than an above ground canal, helps to prevent evaporation. When the kareez enter an agricultural area, they often become above ground channels or streams.

The Nara Canal is an excavated waterway in Sindh province, Pakistan. It was built

as an excavated channel off the left bank of the Indus River into the course of the old Nara River. The canal runs from above the Sukkur Barrage through the Khairpur, Sanghar and Tharparkar Districts to the Jamrao Canal.[2] Nara is the longest canal in Pakistan, running for about 226 mi (364 km). It has a designed capacity of 13,602 cu ft/s (385.2 m3/s), but actually discharges 14,145 cu ft/s (400.5 m3/s). About 2,000,000 acres (8,100 km2) of land are irrigated by this canal.[3] Within the Khairpur District, the canal and its associated wetlands were made into the Nara Game Reserve in 1972.