Water treaties have played an important role in peaceful resolution of water-related conflicts. Although the mode of negotiation to resolve water-related conflicts may vary from treaty to treaty, a number of structural falls make them unprepared for the future needs. The Indus water treaty is perhaps quoted as the most successful water-sharing mechanism in the recent times. Against all odds, the treaty has fulfilled its job descriptions of being a mechanism providing a moderately reliable framework for the peaceful resolution of water-related conflicts. However, the climate change is quickly eroding that trust. The water-sharing mechanism lacks guidelines to cater the issues related to climate change and basin sustainability which require integrated approach for their addressal. But the structural inflexibility does not encourage the riparian to collaborate and build mutual trust for common good. The riparian countries, within the framework of treaty, attempt to elevate their national interests by deliberately refusing to comply with the treaty clauses in letter and spirit, and even manipulate data to deprive the competing riparian of water. We propose and argue on the need of adopting structurally sound forum for solving water conflicts which will assist in comprehensive policymaking to ensure the sustainability of transboundary water resources. The forum will also provide an opportunity for the riparian to work together towards confidence-building through sharing of real-time hydrological data and further scientific analysis based on that. Conclusively, the shortcomings of the present conflict-resolution method are addressed by encouraging riparian to collaborate at various levels.npj Clean Water (2019) 2:22; https://doi.
Abstract:The command area of the Rakh branch canal grows wheat, sugarcane, and rice crops in abundance. The canal water, which is trivial for irrigating these crops, is conveyed to the farms through the network of canals and distributaries. For the maintenance of this vast infrastructure; the end users are charged on a seasonal basis. The present water charges are severely criticized for not being adequate to properly manage the entire infrastructure. We use the residual value to determine the value of the irrigation water and then based on the quantity of irrigation water supplied to farm land coupled with the infrastructure maintenance cost, full cost recovery figures are executed for the study area, and policy recommendations are made for the implementation of the full cost recovery system. The approach is unique in the sense that the pricings are based on the actual quantity of water conveyed to the field for irrigating crops. The results of our analysis showed that the canal water is severely under charged in the culturable command area of selected distributaries, thus negating the plan of having a self-sustainable irrigation system.
This study presented the spatio-temporal characteristics of extreme precipitation events in the Northern Highlands of Pakistan (NHPK). Daily precipitation observations of 30 in situ meteorological stations from 1961 to 2014 were used to estimate the 11 extreme precipitation indices. Additionally, trends in time distribution patterns (TDPs) and return periods were also investigated for event based extreme precipitations (EEP). Results found that the precipitation events with an amount of 160–320 mm and with a concentration ratio of 0.8–1.0 and a duration of 4–7 consecutive days were dominant. The frequency of heavy, very heavy and extremely heavy precipitation days decreased, whereas the frequency of wet, very wet and extremely wet days increased. Most of the indices, generally, showed an increasing trend from the northeast to middle parts. The extreme precipitation events of the 20 and 50-year return period were more common in the western and central areas of NHPK. Moreover, the 20 and 50-year return levels depicted higher values (up to 420 mm) for an event duration with all daily precipitation extremes dispersed in the first half (TDP1) in the Chitral, Panjkora and Jhelum Rivers basins, whilst the maximum values (up to 700 mm) for an event duration with all daily precipitation extremes dispersed in the second half (TDP2) were observed in the eastern part of the NHPK for 20-year and eastern and south-west for 50-year, respectively.
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