Water for food security: challenges for Pakistan

Ringler, Claudia; Anwar, Arif A.

doi:10.1080/02508060.2013.832122

Cited by 27 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 12 publications

(11 reference statements)

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“…With an overall contribution of 19.5% to the national GDP, the agriculture sector employs over 42% of the labour force, provides the raw material for about 30% of its industry, and is the largest source of foreign exchange earnings in Pakistan (IUCN, 2018). In turn, agriculture uses around 88-92% of the available water resources to irrigate about 15 million hectares (150,000 km 2 ) spread across the country (Ringler & Anwar, 2013;Amir & Habib, 2015;IUCN, 2018). Within the agriculture sector, irrigation is the largest water consumer (over 98%) because Pakistan has a semi-arid climate and heavily depends on irrigating crops to produce food and fibre for its ballooning population (Ringler & Anwar, 2013;Piesse, 2015;Young et al, 2019).…”

Section: Corrected Proofmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In turn, agriculture uses around 88-92% of the available water resources to irrigate about 15 million hectares (150,000 km 2 ) spread across the country (Ringler & Anwar, 2013;Amir & Habib, 2015;IUCN, 2018). Within the agriculture sector, irrigation is the largest water consumer (over 98%) because Pakistan has a semi-arid climate and heavily depends on irrigating crops to produce food and fibre for its ballooning population (Ringler & Anwar, 2013;Piesse, 2015;Young et al, 2019). However, agriculture is also the most climate-vulnerable sector of Pakistan (Piesse, 2015;CIAT-World Bank, 2017;IUCN, 2018).…”

Section: Corrected Proofmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Climate-water governance: a systematic analysis of the water sector resilience and adaptation to combat climate change in Pakistan

2020

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Climate change and water security have become the most challenging global issues of this era, especially for developing countries like Pakistan. Amid many hindrances, poor governance has been identified as one of the most pressing reasons for ineffective action to tackle multifaceted and integrative climate-water issues in Pakistan. This article, therefore, applied a systematic literature review methodology to examine the current climate-water governance archetype, including key areas, major elements, critical gaps, and potential strategy in Pakistan. This study found that key climate-water governance areas in Pakistan are: river basin and watershed management, agriculture and irrigation management, urban and domestic water issues, floods, droughts and disaster management, groundwater management, and transboundary management. Moreover, it is revealed that the major governance elements are political commitment and leadership, policy formulation and regulation, institutional capacity and coordination, stakeholder engagement, and resource management, technology, and infrastructure development. The article also discusses how Pakistan has not effectively employed most of the identified governance elements to tackle its climate-water problems, lacking mostly in political, policy, institutional, coordination, and infrastructure aspects. In conclusion, a four-dimensional governance strategy, encompassing leadership, policy, institutions, and stakeholders is proposed to improve water sector resilience and adaptation to combat climate change in Pakistan.

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Section: Corrected Proofmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Corrected Proofmentioning

confidence: 99%

Climate-water governance: a systematic analysis of the water sector resilience and adaptation to combat climate change in Pakistan

2020

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“…These issues are particularly challenging for the people of Pakistan that rely on the waters of the Indus River. According to Ringler and Anwar (), production of 100% of Pakistan's cash crops and 90% of the country's food grains relies on irrigation. Additionally, 6,599 MW of Pakistan's 19,547 MW electricity supply is generated from hydropower (Mirza et al ), and hydropower production is expected to increase with five additional dams planned as part of the North Indus River Cascade (Gupta, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Amplification of hydrological model uncertainties in projected climate simulations of the Upper Indus Basin: Does it matter where the water is coming from?

Dolk

Penton

Ahmad

2020

Hydrological Processes

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There is a growing appreciation of the uncertainties in the estimation of snow-melt and glacier-melt as a result of climate change in high elevation catchments. Through a detailed examination of three hydrological models in two catchments, and interpretation of results from previous studies, we observed that many variations in estimated streamflow could be explained by the selection of a best parameter set from the possible good model parameters. The importance of understanding changing glacial dynamics is critically important for our study areas in the Upper Indus Basin where Pakistan's policymakers are planning infrastructure to meet the future energy and water needs of hundreds of millions of people downstream. Yet, the effect of climate on glacial runoff and climate on snowmelt runoff is poorly understood. With the HBV model, for example, we estimated glacial melt as between 56% and 89% for the Hunza catchment. When rainfall was a scaled parameter, the models estimated glacial melt as between 20% and 100% of streamflow. These parameter sets produced wildly different projections of future climate for RCP8.5 scenarios in 2046-2075 compared to 1976-2005. Assuming no glacial shrinkage, for one climate projection, we found that the choice among good parameter sets resulted in projected values of future streamflow across a range from +54% to +125%. Parameter selection was the most significant source of uncertainty in the glaciated catchment and amplified climate model uncertainty, whereas climate model choice was more important in the rainfall dominated catchment. Although the study focuses on Pakistan, the overall conclusions are instructive for other similar regions in the world.We suggest that modellers of glaciated catchments should present results from at least the book-ends: models with low sensitivity to ice-melt and models with high sensitivity to ice-melt. This would reduce confusion among decision makers when they are faced with similar contrasting results.

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“…The sustainability of water resources in Pakistan is challenged by many drivers that are extensively reported in the literature (Briscoe and Qamar 2005;Mustafa et al 2013;Ringler and Anwar 2013;Immerzeel et al 2010). Pakistan is already a water-stressed country, and its growing population, the primary driver of change, is projected to reach between 238 and 314 million by 2050 (UN Population Division 2012).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pakistan’s Water Apportionment Accord of 1991: 25 Years and Beyond

Anwar¹,

Bhatti²

2018

J. Water Resour. Plann. Manage.

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The apportionment of waters of the Indus River System between the provinces of Pakistan is widely hailed as a historic agreement. This agreement (herein referred to as the Accord) was signed into effect in 1991, just over 25 years ago. The Accord lacks a clearly stated objective and hence it is difficult to review the Accord against its objective. This paper presents a detailed thematic review of the Accord and interprets the literature and data sets that have become available over the last 25 years. Although the Accord leaves room for interpretation, which is often biased to a particular perspective, an obvious starting point that has been highlighted in the literature is to improve water accounting in the Indus basin and to clarify and document the Operating Rules. Over the next 25 years, demographic change, socioeconomic change, and climate change in the Indus Basin will place this Accord under increased scrutiny.

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Water for food security: challenges for Pakistan

Cited by 27 publications

References 12 publications

Climate-water governance: a systematic analysis of the water sector resilience and adaptation to combat climate change in Pakistan

Climate-water governance: a systematic analysis of the water sector resilience and adaptation to combat climate change in Pakistan

Amplification of hydrological model uncertainties in projected climate simulations of the Upper Indus Basin: Does it matter where the water is coming from?

Pakistan’s Water Apportionment Accord of 1991: 25 Years and Beyond

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