WATER, ENVIRONMENT AND CLIMATE CHANGE:
IMPLICATIONS FOR SUSTAINABILITY
Bakhshal Lashari, PhD, Post Docs
Professor/Director
Institute of Water Resources Engineering and Management
Mehran University of Engineering and Technology,
Sindh Pakistan
One Day Colloquium on
“Water Crises and Choices: Post Flood Scenario”
University of Agriculture Faisalabad
January 10, 2011

Water: Source of Life, Food and Fiber

Water also brings miseries
Hurricane Katrina (Sept. 2005) Kenya Drought (Spring 2006)
China Drought (Spring 2010)
Flood in Pakistan
(Aug. 2010)

• Energy production needs a lot of water
– ~ 25 gallons per kWh
– ~ 39% of freshwater withdrawals in USA (excluding hydropower demand) are for thermoelectric plants (136 bgd)

Per-Capita Freshwater Availability (2000)

1 kg grain ≡ 1000 l of water
1 kg beef ≡ 15,000 l of water
• Meaty American and European diets
– 5,000 l of water/day
• Vegetarian African and Asian diets
– 2,000 l of water/day
• Meat consumption in China
– 20 kg (1995) & 50 kg (2009)
• Dietary habits difficult to be reversed!!

Climate Change Impacts on Hydrology
• Intensification of the hydrological cycle
– More floods and droughts
– More variability in rainfall
– Shorter snowfall season
– Early spring snowmelt
– Accelerated glacial melting
• May affect water availability, water quality, ecosystems, etc.
IPCC (2007) Freshwater Resources and their Management

DROUGHTS:
SOME RECENT OCCURRENCES

Drought in, Water Surplus, Southwestern China
(Spring 2010)
Satellite Observations
(20 March, 2010)
Dark red shows severest drought. Most parts of Yunnan and Guizhou provinces suffered from the severest droughts. The drought was classified into five grades: severest, severer, moderate, mild, and normal.

Land, Rivers and Water Transportation During China
2010 Drought
Affected:
60 mn people
12 mn livestock
5 mn hect. crops
Cost = $3.5 billion

Severe Drought Fires in Russia
(2010)

FLOODS:
SOME RECENT OCCURRENCES

2010 Flood in China
15-21 June
Severity:
6-12 July
3000 Deaths; 1100 Missing
305 mn people; 1.36 mn Houses
13 Aug. 2010
28 Provinces
100,000 sqkm. Land
$ 41 bn in Damages

Pakistan 2010 Floods
(Worst Natural Disaster Ever: U.N.)
Severity:
2000+ Deaths
20 mn People Affected
1 mn Houses Damaged
160,000 sqkm. Land
$ 6 bn in Damages
$45 bn Total Economic
Impact
Total Rainfall During
1 July to 23 Aug.
15

1600
1400
1200
1000
800
600
400
200
0
1998 2005 2010
Water availability
2015
Population
2020 2025
100
50
0
300
250
200
150

Water storage capacity per person per year

• Pakistan has good, abundant sunshine and excellent farmers
• Yet crop yield per ha and cubic meter is much lower than international benchmarks

3000
2500
2000
1500
1000
500
0
Canal Diversion and Water logging in Sindh
40
30
20
10
0
60
50
Waterlogging Canal Diversion

2,00
1,80
1,60
1,40
1,20
1,00
0,80
0,60
0,40
0,20
0,00
Head Middle Tail

How Farmers are using it?
Water supply and crop water requirements
0,2
0,18
0,16
0,14
0,12
0,1
0,08
0,06
0,04
0,02
0
0,3
0,28
0,26
0,24
0,22

Expenditure Trend on System Maintenance

Year Population Water Water Use (MAF)
Million MAF Irrigation Industry Home
2009
2025
41.23
52.6
48.76
72.0
40.5
59.8
4.9
7.2
3.4
5.0

Average water availability
(1991-2009)
Shortfall (as per water accord)
Water need in 2025 (Projected)
( irrig 83%, Ind 10% Mun 7%)
Short fall in 2025 (about)
Groundwater available
Net shortfall in 2025
41.76 MAF
7.0 MAF
72.0 MAF
30.0 MAF
5 MAF
25 MAF

• Water storage
• Flood and Drought due to climate change
• Lack of Institutional Coordination
• Knowledge gap/Capacity
• Low Irrigation Delivery and Application
Efficiencies
• Drainage and Salinity Problems

• Enforcement of Regulations
• Changing Cropping Pattern
• Deteriorating Irrigation Infrastructure
• Inequitable Distribution of Water
• Sea water intrusion-Coastal area
• Deterioration of groundwater
• Pollution of Wetlands-Lakes

• Two Main challenges
– Enough water of good quality:
• to all people,
• at all places,
• at all times and
• at an affordable cost
– Sufficient resilience against floods and droughts
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SUSTAINABLE WATER RESOURCES
MANAGEMENT
31

Integrated Water Resources Management
(IWRM)
• Simultaneous consideration of:
– Surface and groundwater
– Quantity and quality
– Watershed and water bodies
– Hydrology, hydraulics, environment, policy and socio-economics
– Multiple sectors, stakeholders, and decision makers

Strategies for Sustainable
Water Use
CONSER-
VATION
DEVELOP
ADDITIONAL
SOURCES
• DESALINATION
EFFICIENT
USE
WATER
SUPPPLY
REUSE
TREAT-
MENT
RECYCLE

• Innovative, revolutionary, and selfsustaining programs
• Diverse and multi-institutional partnerships
• Pricing and valuing water for enhancing water-use efficiency
• Strongly integrated planning for water, energy and agriculture
• Robust regional-capacity building
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