Irrigation Engineering

Class of F18-Batch
Unit 2: Water Resources Management & and Water Resources of
Pakistan
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Fundamentals of Water Resources 2
• Three characteristics of water
• Fresh water is vital to sustain life, for which there is no substitute. This
means that water has a (high) value to its users.
• Although water is a renewable resource,
 it is practically speaking finite. The use of water is therefore subtractible,
meaning that the use by somebody may preclude the use by somebody else.
• Water is a fugitive resource.
 It is therefore difficult to assess the (variations in) stock and flow of the
resource, and to define the boundaries of the resource, which complicate the
planning and monitoring of withdrawals as well as the exclusion of non-
members.
Integrated water resources management 3
• There is growing awareness that comprehensive water resources
management is needed, because:
• fresh water resources are limited;
• those limited fresh water resources are becoming more and more polluted,
 rendering them unfit for human consumption and also unfit to sustain
the ecosystem;
• those limited fresh water resources have to be divided amongst the
competing needs and demands in a society
• many citizens do not as yet have access to sufficient and safe fresh water
resources
• techniques used to control water (such as dams and dikes) may often have
undesirable consequences on the environment
Integrated water resources management 4
• there is an intimate relationship between groundwater and surface water,
between coastal water and fresh water, etc.
• Regulating one system and not the others may not achieve the desired
results.
• Hence, engineering, economic, social, ecological and legal aspects need to
be considered, as well as quantitative and qualitative aspects, and supply
and demand.

Water Scarcity
and pollution in
photos
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Water Resources of Pakistan 10
• Pakistan possesses the world’s largest contiguous irrigation system
commonly called as Indus Basin Irrigation system.
• It commands an area of about 14.3 million hectares (35 million acres)
and encompasses the Indus River and its major tributaries.
• The system includes
 three large reservoirs (Tarbela, Mangla and Chashma),
 23 barrages/headworks/siphons,
 12 inter-river links and
 45 canal commands extending for about 60,800 km to serve
over 140,000 farmer operated watercourses.
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Assignment 1 14
• Write a detailed report of
• Water Resources of Pakistan
• By emphasizing on following objectives
1. Identify and explain Indus River Basin
2. What are major sources of water available to Pakistan. Outline their
paths (for rivers) on map.
3. What is the quantity each source is supplying.
4. What is the water storage capacity of Pakistan. Identify locations of
reservoirs on map.
5. What are the national water requirements? Elaborate need of each
industry.
The End

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