Geographical and Economic Realities

The Indus River is the bloodline of Pakistan. The people of the Pakistani provinces of Punjab, Sindh, Khyber Pakhthunkhwa, Azad Kashmir and Balochistan all depend on its flow. Most of the major cities are near the Indus banks, and its tributary of Chenab, which itself has four major tributaries of Jhelum, Ravi, Beas and Sutlej. These flow down the fertile province of Punjab, feeding the crops that form the backbone of the economy. They converge into the Indus River, in the lower province of Sindh, before flowing out to the Arabian Sea as shown in this map of the country (Ahmad & Lodrick).

The Indus River and its major tributaries are all snow-fed. This drastically affects the rivers’ flow seasonally: during the winter months (December to February) it is at the lowest, rising in spring and early summer (March to June) and flooding over in the monsoon season (July to September). In some places, there are destructive flash floods. All the rivers originate in the northern hills and mountains of the country. Therefore, their flow is stronger upstream whereas downstream Sindh receives the least surface flow, from a river exhausted by the greedy plains of Punjab. Evaporation and seepage significantly reduce the flow volume as well (“Indus River [river, Asia]”).

“The Indus basin has the largest irrigated area on any one river system” in the world (Sinha). The canals that divert water out of the river are a source of livelihood for thousands of farmers. Without this artificial supply of water, many lands cannot grow any crops. Of the 20 million hectares of cultivated land in the Indus basin, 17 million hectares depend on irrigation (Gill & Sampath, p. 77).

In Pakistan, dams are considered the mainstay of irrigation. They store water in the high flow and rainy seasons for crops that are grown in the drier winter season. These are known as the rabi crops, which are cultivated from November to April. Wheat, the staple food of the country, is the most prominent rabi crop. Kharif is the second type of crop or season of cultivation, lasting from May to November. It includes the cash crops of cotton, rice and sugarcane (“Encyclopedia of the Nations”). These are water-intensive crops, which combine with irrigation inefficiency to leave little water for rabi, thus serving as an excuse for building dams. Never mind the reconstitution of crops grown or lack of irrigation efficiency enhancement. By the 1990s average delivery efficiency from canal head to the root zone was an unimpressive 35-40 percent (Faruqee & Hussain, p. 569).

For the urban population and industries, the river is a source of energy and drinking water. Hydropower is Pakistan’s second largest source of electricity (Sinha). Thus big dams are common in the country, although they tend to be politically contentious. Not only is there tension over sharing the Indus between Pakistan and India, there is also political conflict within the country, especially between the provinces of Punjab and Sindh.