the role of environment and natural resources in pak eco

8/9/2019 The Role of Environment and Natural Resources in Pak Eco

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The Role of NaturalResources in Pakistans

Economy

Natural Resource Development PolicesM. Phil Fall Semester 2009

Dr. Shoaib Ahmed


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I. The Concept of ResourceA resource is something that is useful and valuable in

the condition in which we find it.

In its raw or unmodified state, it may be an input into the process

of producing something of value, or it may enter consumption

processes directly and thus be valued as an amenity.

"Resource" is a dynamic concept and the possibility always existsthat changes in information, technology and relative scarcity may

make a valuable resource out of that which previously had no

value.


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Resources are multi-attribute

Resources are multi-attribute and have

q uantity,q uality,

time andspace dimensions.


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Air is a useful example which is available in such a vast quantity that it

may seem more like a free good than a resource.Resources like mineral deposits exist in given stocks in a given place.

These are called stock resources since withdrawal from the stock lead"

eventually to its exhaustion.

Renewable resources which also include biological resources (e.g. forests,crops, animal population) are capable of regenerating themselves so long

as the environment in which they are nurtured remains favorable.

Water and atmosphere generally undergo a natural self-cleansing process

as pollutants are deposited in them but effectiveness of such naturalcleansing processes often depends on the rate at which such pollutants

are deposited.

Non-exhaustible resources are automatically self-renewing but renewable

given human restraint and sound husbandry.


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II. Background: British Imperial Expansionism

In order to understand the present status Natural

Resources in Pakistan we have to trace back to an eraof exploitation.

With the dawn of colonial rule in the Indian

subcontinent encompassing the areas which nowconstitute Pakistan, the balance between natural

resources/nature and human needs was destabilized.


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British Imperial expansion

The needs of British Imperial expansion and

industrialization were met bymisappropriation of natural and human

resources of sub-continent.

Lack of sensible planning by the people at the

helm of affairs and misallocation of resources

has greatly endangered the future prospects.


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III. Ecological Poverty Economic growth achieved at the cost of the environment

Most of production and manufacturing processes exploit

healthy but scarce ecosystems.The heavy dependence on natural resourcesand resulting environmental degradation

has generated a cycle of ecologicalpoverty with implications for thesustainability of economic growth.


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Ecological poverty defined as t e lack of a ealt y natural resource w ic is

essential for uman society s survival and development


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Role of Natural ResourcesW..Natural Resources in Pakistan contribute to the economy in a

number of ways and in virtually every section of the economy.

Now it is an established fact that resources like energy, food,

water, forests etc. have undergone a se quence of crises.

The issue of resource availability has been associated more

and more with environmental problems resulting fromexpanded energy use, the exploitation of more diffuse

resources, deforestation and certain agricultural practices.


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a. Dependence on natural resources and

increased pressure on the environment

The countrys large and growing population is sustained by, andcritically dependent on, the Indus River and its tributaries.

Irrigated agriculture accounts for more than 90% of food andfiber, and for most of fodder production.

Population growth has reduced per capita water availability toless than 1,100 cubic meters (m3) in 2007.

Irrigation has serious environmental implications such as water-logging and salinity, both of which affect crop yields.

Around 2530% of the canal-irrigated area becomes water-loggedafter the monsoon season.


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Dependence on natural resources (ContinuedW..)

Irrigation leads to an additional 1.7 tons of salt deposited per hectare every year.

Some 8% of land suffers from severe salinity.

Although the use of tube wells has reduced the extent of water-logging, the useof groundwater containing high levels of dissolved salts has resulted in sodicity,

which also affects crop yields, especially in clayey soils.

The drawdown of fresh groundwater has led to the intrusion of brackish water

from surrounding zones, and an overall deterioration in groundwater quality.

There is also an increased risk of flooding owing to rising riverbeds in the lower

Indus basin.

Diversions and inade quate environmental flows have resulted in seawater

intrusion and the degradation of the Indus delta and adjacent coastal areas.


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b. Dependence of poor communities on natural

resources

The vast majority of Pakistans population lives in rural areas.

The rural poor comprise 34% of the rural population and include

mainly landless households or small tenant farmers.In the absence of any formal sources of employment, theirlivelihoods are linked to agriculture and the use of naturalresources.

Many provide services to the agriculture sector and graze theirsmall stock on marginal lands around farm fields.

The degradation of various ecosystems has an immediate anddirect impact on the livelihoods of the rural poor.


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Dependence of poor communities (ContinuedW..)

The pollution of land, water, and air affects the health and

livelihoods of poor households who do not have coping strategies

against unexpected stress factors.There has been an impressive decline in national poverty during

2001-2005. Rural poverty, however, has fallen more slowly than

the national average despite satisfactory growth in the

agricultural GDP in 3 of the 4 years of poverty decline.

One implication of this is that poverty in Pakistan is concentrated

in rural areas among households who have neither access to

ade quate holdings of cultivable land nor security of tenure.


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i. Agriculture in GDPIn the absence of direct data on the share of environmental andnatural resources in GDP, the agriculture sector, which is

heavily dependent on natural resources, gives a rough idea of the share that the latter contributes to Pakistans GDP.

Overall, the agriculture sectors share of GDP has been on thecontinued decline and stood at 20.9% in the fiscal year(FY)2008 (Table 1).

Accordingly, the shares of all its subsectors have also fallen.Notwithstanding this decline, agriculture continues to representthe primary source of livelihoods for 66.0% of the populationwhile employing 43.6% of the workforce.


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Agriculture (ContinuedW.)

The livestock subsector is a primary source of livelihoods for poor

households in irrigated tracts.

On rangelands around lakes and along rivers, other poor householdsdepend on grazing small stock, minor forest products, and inland

fishing for their livelihoods. Coastal fishing communities who do not

own mechanized boats make a bare living from the sea.

The continued decline in the agriculture sectors contribution to GDPimplies that there are limited opportunities for creating additional jobs

in the combined agriculture and natural resources sector.

Nonetheless, these opportunities can be capitalized on by increasing

labor productivity in the sector.


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ii. Livestock subsectorWithin agriculture, the livestock subsector offers some prospects.

According to the Livestock Census 2006, the share of livestock in

agricultural growth has increased from 25.3% in 1996 to 49.6% in2006.

Approximately 35 million rural inhabitants are involved in some form

of livestock production.

The typical family owns 23 cows/buffaloes,34 sheep/goats and

1012 chickens from which they earn 3540% of their household

income.


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Livestock subsector (ContinuedWW)

In most cases, women are responsible for tending their familys

livestock although men are likely to handle related financial

transactions. Much of the growth in livestock production has beendue to the increased production of buffalo and cow milk. Annual

milk production over the last 10 years has increased from 9.4 to

13.3 billion litersPakistan is now the worlds fifth-largest

milk producer. This indicates a potential opportunity toreplicate successful models of cooperatives of milk-producing

households to process, chill, and sell milk from a common

collection point to marketing organizations.


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iii. Horticulture subsectorThe Government has identified horticulture as a potential subsector for

development, and announced a program to increase the export of horticultural

produce from $150 million presently to $1 billion by 2012.

The program has implications for the environment and for poverty, which may

vary considerably depending on how it is implemented.

A business model that relies on heavy chemical inputs could increase the

problems associated with agrichemical runoff without contributing significantly to

poverty alleviation.A producers cooperative model linked to competitive and efficient markets, on

the other hand, could generate substantial employment and income, especially

for women farmers who traditionally tend vegetable patches in peri-urban areas.


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iv. Genetically modified cotton subsector

Another subject for environmental and social research is genetically

modified cotton, with the prospect of increasing total cotton

production to 21 million bales from 11.7 million bales in FY2008.

This will significantly enhance the demand for female labor since

virtually all of Pakistans cotton is handpicked by women.

On the other hand, the risks include dependence on external seed

suppliers. It is by no means certain that farmers will reduce theapplication of pesticides and herbicides to which genetically modified

varieties are designed to be resistantthis will depend on the manner

and extent to which downstream environmental costs from nonpoint

sources of pollution are internalized.


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Areas of ConcernStudies conducted recently have highlighted a number of issues.

The areas of concern identified include

water,

energy,

pollution and waste management,

irrigated agriculture, and

Biodiversity

These studies reveal a deterioration in all these areas.


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Areas of Concern(ContinuedW.)

The increasing pollution of water, air, and land continues to have an

enormous impact on peoples health, especially that of vulnerable

groups such as children.

The quality and quantity of renewable natural resources such as water,

forests and other vegetation, and key biological habitats have

declined.

The Government, private sector, and civil society have not responded

ade quately to meet these challenges, although there have been some

exceptions.


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Although all natural resources (including exhaustible resources)

are vital enough to be closely scrutinized. a. Water: A vital

Natural Resource

Let us have a brief overview of water resources inPakistan addressing its existing position, management capacity,

potential and problems.Legislative shortcomings and future trends in accordance to the

developing strategies for the sustainable development.


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W ater: A Vital Natural Resource (continuedW)

Nature has endowed Pakistan with ample

water resources which include:

i) Surface water of rivers and their tributaries.

ii) Viable ground water.iii) Local rainfall and glaciers


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Rivers flow from Kashmir and beyond


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b. Surface W ater of Rivers & their tributaries

(i) River Basins:The Indus Basin,

the Kharan Closed Basin and

the Makran Coastal Basin are three principal river

basins.

The major portion of country's geographical area,

that is 70%, is covered by Indus Basin whereas 30% is

equally shared by Kharan Basin and Makran Basin.


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(ii) Rivers and their Tributaries:

'Pakistan is blessed with the largest potential of water, the Indus River

which is rightly termed as the World's great Natural Resource.

Raising in Tibet it flows some 1800 miles from the Himalayas to theArabian Sea.

On the right bank of Indus River, River Kabul and

on the left bank the Jehlum, Chenab, the Ravi, the Beas and the Sutlej

are the major tributaries which together form the major source of surface water.

Indus, Jehlum and Chenab are those rivers with which Pakistan had to

settle down after signing the Indus Basin Treaty.


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The rivers of the Kharan closed Basin discharge and evaporate

in an inland basin.

The Makran Rivers originate from flash floods and flow directly

into the Arabian Sea.

The Indus River and the five tributaries of the Punjab are in analmost literal sense the arteries through which flows the life

blood of our nation.

These rivers over long ages, build up the fertile land that

nourished Valley civilization for thousand years ago and now

sustain the life of people of Pakistan.

Average Annual flow in the three rivers -172 billions mound.


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(iii) W ater Quality of Rivers

Water of the rivers of Pakistan like all rivers of the world contain soluble salts,

the content of which varies for each river, its catchments areas, sources of its

water supply and the season.

All the main rivers of Pakistan are perennial.

They originate from the mountains and the catchments of the Indus at elevation

above 5000 feet consist of rock formations.

Similar is the case for the catchments of the Jehlum and Chenab.

The waters of these perennial rivers are drawn from the melting of snow,rainfall and valley storage.

Rainwater is the purest form of water, it contains no salt but when it runs off

over the erodable soils it picks up sediment and salts both soluble and

insoluble.


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(iv) Viable Ground W ater

Ground water is a supplementary source, available to us but its

availability considerably depends upon surface water supply.

Presently it is more or less fully exploited by tube wells, open wells,Karazes (underground water channels) etc.

These resources have been extensively investigated during the last 25

years.

As a result the existence of a vast a quifer underlying the Indus Plainswas identified, recharged from natural precipitation, river flows and

more recently by seepage from canal system.

Ground water pump age in the Indus Plain is estimated to be 44.6

million acre feet.


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C. Water Resource Management in Pakistan:Issues & C hallenges


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W ater Resources: challenges

Freshwater sources, while renewable in the long term, have

finite withdrawal limits.

Pakistan has reached the withdrawal limits of its surface andgroundwater sources.

The per capita availability of water has decreased from 5,300 m 3

per person per year in 1951 to less than 1,100 m 3 per person per

year in 2007 owing to population growth.

Pakistan is heading inexorably into the category of water-stressed

countries, defined as having less than 1,000 m 3 per person per

year (Figure 1).


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The mean value of inflows into the Indus Basin is 187 billion m 3,

with a 20% chance of not exceeding 148 billion m 3 in any given

year.

After India has made all the withdrawals permitted to it under the

Indus Basin Treaty, the long-term availability of surface water toPakistan will fall to 173.6 billion m 3.

Of this volume, 130 billion m 3 are already diverted at canal heads.

Groundwater is a secondary or derived source.

Of the annual recharge to groundwater (estimated at 5766 billion

m3), roughly 4952 billion m 3 are already drawn up by tubewells

and used; most of the unutilized recharge occurs in areas of saline

groundwater.


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Freshwater flows into Pakistans rivers have also been reduced substantially by water

diversions for irrigation agriculture in recent decades.

decreasing flows of freshwater down the Indus as a result of dams and barrages,

together with the shortage of rainfall and high temperatures has resulted in higher

salinity levels in the creeks of the Indus River delta.

The Indus deltas ecosystem has been degraded by diversions for irrigation since the

major barrages have acted as barriers to migrating fish and rare mammals such as theIndus dolphin.

Many riverine wetlands have been drained and converted to agricultural land.

Most of Pakistans natural lakes have disappeared over the last 50 years, although

several new lakes have been created upstream of the dams and barrages on the

Indus.

Farmers, especially in the Potohar region, have also created hundreds of micro-

reservoirs. While some of these have become important wintering grounds for huge

concentrations of ducks and coots, as artificial reservoirs they lack the reed beds

that often border natural lakes and provide a rich habitat for a quatic life.


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Policy OptionsThe long term development planning for Pakistan

agricultural potential of the Indus Basin must occupy

a central place in policy planning.

The more effective management of the

Indus Basin as an integrated andenvironmentally stable irrigation

system would enhance the cropping intensities.


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F or the achievement of sustainable use of water priority

should be accorded to certain factors like;

Control of conveyance losses by lining of minors

distributaries for those channels located in the saline ground

water areas.Conjunctive use of surface and groundwater.

Reservoir sedimentation.

Treatment of industrial! Domestic waste.

Monitoring water quality.

Energy conservation.

Installation! Replacement of tube wells.


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Policy options (continuedW.)

A very well integrated and interactive net work of various departments at the

Federal and Provincial level must be efficiently co-ordinate with different

sectors of the economy including research institutions to smooth out the rough

edges in the development planning and management of economic and waterresources.

The planners while evaluating the feasibility of water development project

should identify possible environment impacts owing to the proposed project

and must incorporal environmental protection strategies.

Water scheduling cells should be established in the irrigation departments of

provinces to develop macro-level water management plans for the distribution

of the irrigation supplies more in line with the crop water re quirement in

different canal commands.


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Stress should be given to maxim zing conservation; rational management and

efficient use of water through improved water use efficiency by accelerating onfarm management and command area management programmes.

Modem techni ques of irrigation to tackle specific problem encountered in our

irrigated agriculture must be adopted.

A high priority must be accorded to the installation of an effective and well-

planned drainage system for the expeditions removal of all excess surface water

from precipitation, irrigation and flooding.

Meager resources allocation for water sector coupled with crating back of annual

development allocations has resulted in the prolongation of the completion of

the projects and deals with the accrual of the benefits. There is scope for thecreation of a suitable self ~financing mechanism under which certain activities

are handed over to the semi autonomous entities which could develop and

manage water and power projects outside the Annual Development Plan and

repay the borrowed funds from earnings.


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Pakistan is one of thebiggest blessings of Allah for every Pakistani.Whatever we havetoday its all because of Pakistan, otherwise, wewould have had nothing...So, Please besincere to Pakistan.

Pakistan Zindabad

the role of environment and natural resources in pak eco

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