An agrarian country like Pakistan, that is solely dependent on the water from the glacial melt of the Himalayas coursing through the Indus River system, has been declared water scarce by UNDP in 2025. The country’s agriculture constitutes almost 24% of its gross domestic product (GDP), and about 44% of the population relies heavily on agriculture for employment.
Situation at hand
Since 1951, Pakistan’s water availability per capita has decreased from 5000 cubic meters to only 1,017 cubic meters, marking an extensive period of water scarcity. IMF reports that the water availability has declined from 1500 cubic meters to 1,017 cubic meters from 2009 to 2021.
To add to the problem, agriculture consumes 90% of the country’s water resources due to outdated agricultural irrigation, which in turn puts more strain on the water availability for the population. Moreover, the extraction of groundwater is poorly managed which is causing exploitation of the resource.
This is seen as a growing problem due to the population boom in the country, currently standing at 247.5 million. Parts of Pakistan are officially facing droughts. Balochistan is facing the worst drought this year; people have to walk about 50 kilometers just to get access to water fit for human consumption.
Inequitable water distribution
Under the 1991 Water Accords, the four provinces were to get their fair share of the water from the Indus River System (IRS) according to their population size and agricultural needs. The provincial water quota was allocated as follows:
- Punjab 55.94 MAF,
- Sindh 48.76 MAF,
- KPK 8.78 MAF,
- Balachistan 3.87 MAF
The Indus River System Authority (IRSA) was created to ensure fair and equitable distribution of water among the provinces, but it failed miserably. Reports by IRSA confirm that from 1999 to 2023, Sindh’s annual water shortage has fallen to 45%, meaning almost half of the allotted 48 MAF by IRSA does not reach the people of Sindh.
Meanwhile, Punjab’s water shortage decreased to only fifteen percent. Moreover, recent studies show an overall freshwater decline in the IRS, which is attributed to multiple factors like climate change, Indus Delta exploitation, waterlogging, water seepage in canals, and insufficient water reservoirs.
About 80% of Sindh’s agriculture is dependent on freshwater from the IRS which is currently supplied with a 45% cut. Due to this water shortage from the IRS, agricultural zones like Thatta and Badin are highly affected.
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Statistics show that about 18 million acres of agricultural land cannot be farmed in Sindh due to the water shortage, and as a result, cannot perform up to its potential. This scarcity highlights the absolute dependence of farmers of Sindh on canal water from the Indus for irrigation purposes. Groundwater is often brackish and has high salinity which makes it unfit for the irrigation of crops.
Not to forget that the floods of 2022 destroyed about 4.4 million acres of cultivated land. Additionally, due to poor planning, about 7,300 kilometers of canal area is destroyed, and freshwater from the Indus does not reach the lower areas of Sindh.
WWF reports that over the past 50 years, the Indus Delta has lost 92% of its freshwater inflow from the Indus River, resulting in the loss of Mangrove forests by more than 65 percent. This shows how critical the economic repercussions would be on the people of Sindh, where 37% of its rural population already lives below the poverty line.
Cholistan and all the stakes involved
In the prevailing water crisis and its direct link with inefficient agriculture, the State of Pakistan launched the Green Pakistan Initiative (GPI) in 2023. The Green Pakistan Initiative is a cross-sectoral collaborative effort that brings together both federal and provincial governments along with the country’s military.
It comprises several projects like corporate farming, wide-scale tree plantations to combat deforestation, and ambitious irrigation projects like the infamous Cholistan Canal Project (CCP).
The main objective of the Cholistan Canal project under the GPI was to irrigate the 4.8 million acres of the arid Cholistan Desert in southern Punjab by building a 176-kilometer canal from the Sutlej River with a capacity of approximately 4,120 cusecs.
The problem
The project was estimated at a hefty cost worth Rs. 225 billion, which would help construct six canals on the IRS across Punjab, Sindh, and Balochistan to enable corporate farming.
It aimed at utilizing floodwaters presumably available from June to October, while extracting water from Punjab’s annual share of the IRS for the rest of the year.
The CCP primarily relied on water from the Sutlej river, only translating to transferring water from other canals, most notably from two Indus Link canals– the Chashma-Jhelum Link Canal (C-J) and Taunsa-Panjnad Canal (T-P).
The C-J Link Canal merges the Indus River with the Jhelum River, while the T-P Link Canal helps transfer water from the Taunsa Barrage (built on the Indus) to Southern Punjab.
This meant overuse of the Indus water, depriving and depleting the lower riparian Sindh’s water share. All of this was only meant to create added strain on the limited water availability from the Indus River.
Massive protests and opposition against the CCP erupted in Sindh which only gained momentum with time. Consequently, on 25th April 2025, the Council of Common Interests (CCI) annulled approval of the project.
An Alternative to Cholistan Corporate Farming
According to a report published in 2020, Pakistan produces 38% of wheat of the projected global productive yield. This shows a lucrative gap which could be leveraged by farmers and the governments by aligning their short-term and long-term goals to bring in more foreign investment.
What can be done?
Much of the available literature focuses on a set of conservation techniques or water management strategies to combat water scarcity. However, there is a huge potential in reclaiming wastelands across Pakistan and restoring the soil fertility of these areas for crop cultivation.
Drought-resistant crops with improved water retention mechanisms can help Pakistan not only manage its water shortages but also make agriculture more productive.
Firstly, farmers should be given workshops on contour ploughing to help protect surface runoff, improve water infiltration, and preserve nutrients for the soil.
Secondly, Pakistan is mostly an arid or semi-arid country, which is why planting drought-resistant plants (like Acacia modesta) will help reclaim soil fertility and improve vegetation cover. Indigenous trees and plants that can adapt to the local climate should be selected.
In India’s Jharkhand, local communities planted timber and bamboo trees alongside which helped not only reduce the pressure on natural forests but also reduce soil erosion.
Thirdly, utilizing microbial bioremediation will help detoxify polluted and contaminated soil while helping restore its fertility. It is a cost-effective and eco-friendly method for the reclamation of wastelands.
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Furthermore, research shows that soil water conservation (SWC) techniques like contour ploughing and contour bunding, along with the right type of fertilizers, help
improve crop yields and rainwater management. These SWC techniques were tried and tested in the Gujar Khan Tehsil and proved to be effective in increasing water productivity.
In India’s Rajasthan, NGOs like the Barefoot College and Jal Bhagirathi Foundation (JBF) came together with local communities to conserve water and establish groundwater management projects in the arid region of Rajasthan, especially in water-scarce villages like Chota Nayrana and Tilonia.
The NGOs used local labor and material to construct sand dams to produce means of water harvesting by capturing monsoon runoff. Recharge structures were also introduced to improve aquifers to improve water availability for the local communities.
Enhanced community participation and empowerment of women helped bring about the success of these projects and improve water governance in the region. The Sindh government can apply a similar model with public-private partnerships in Thatta and Badin.
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Among other things, it is highly critical to introduce digital mechanisms for irrigation water metering. This will help effectively manage available water to each of the provinces. But this will only be viable in the long run if paired with seepage reduction measures.
About 78% of water can be saved through canal lining to reduce seepage. The efficiency of these irrigation canals can go up to 98% if impermeable geosynthetic materials are used to create seepage-resistant structures.
Lastly, urban megacities like Karachi and Lahore should divert resources into managing their wastewater. Industrialists should work towards establishing eco-industrial parks that would enable a circular economy by treating wastewater so that it could be used for landscape irrigation and industrial cooling.
This will also help lower the strain on the already declining sewage systems of the cities. Advanced urban storm drainage systems should be introduced to harvest excess water during Monsoon floods and prevent the cities from drowning.
Javeria Khalid
Javeriya Khalid is a Creative Content Writer and a specialized in International Relations from SZABIST.
