Water Shortage -- A Way Out

The drip irrigation system in China is developping very fast.In Xinjiang of China,to be an arid region,runfall is 120-200mm while evaporating capacity is 3000mm more or less annually.Water is shortage here. if we have enough water to irrigate crop,the people lived here will be very rich for their soil can grow ``white gold``--cotton.So when our company introduce them drip irrigation technology, they use it and then benefit it. Now,the area of extention have amounted to 33 million hectare in china and near country. Saving water 50%. and saving other material of agriculture.Cost of one system is low than any other company.if you are interest in this aspect of information,you can contact with me--wangchxl@hotmail.com.

What worries me more then anythin else ...is teh govts attempt to ram the Kalabagh dam down the other provinces necks ! ..the bulk of water problems can be solved by proper and efficnet management ..it is WAPDAS in efficent bureacracy and corruption that hampers it all ..No organisation worth its salt that knows anythin aboutDams supports Big dam projects anymore ..tehy ahve limited life spans ..ecologically damaaging ..require huge amounts of money ..a la

larger kickbacks .....

Small dams and water reservoirs are the way out ..

but for those who didnt know ..WAPDA does not allow competition ..and small hydro plants ...are not given govt support ..if they are in areas where WAPDA theoretically supplies the power ...(even if it is for only half a day and 6 months in a year ) ..after all the power generated locally costs some 40 % of WAPDA per unit ! ..another option like in teh middle east is water recycling ...again ..we have such a large expat population in the middle east who have seen these things working up close ...it is again ..the holier then thoui attitude of WAPDA

Urstruly`s second suggestion (pulling icebergs) was I think recommended some years ago to the Saudis but determined to be too costly. What is needed is a cost-effective solution, else it will be (as the olde mariner lamented in the middle of the ``painted ocean``) ``water, water everywhere, nor e`er a drop to drink`` or something like that. I dont have any solutions on this, but I do think this is a far bigger problem than people realize. I think Isa sahib has written an important, well-researched article that surely needs to be the basis for public discussion.

The first suggestion Urstruly gave in post #7 (i.e. cleaning sea water and pumping it in-land for drinking and agricultural purposes) is already in practice in most of the Middle Eastern countries.

Desalination plants are the main, sometimes the only sources of water for the population. The water from these plants is used for everything, from drinking purposes to agricultural to industrial.

- lk

Dear Mr. Daudpota!

I have a few suggestions without any consideration to the cost factor at this time. In my opinion these options will be our only options in the near future. So why not start planning now.

1. Develop technology to clean the sea water and pump it in-land for agriculture and drinking purposes. The power requirements can be met by developing small scale modular self-contained nuclear reactors or low cost solar energy. Another option is to convert wind energy into electricity. These technologies exist at present, we just need to develop measures to reduce costs for commercial purposes.

2. Pull gigantic icebergs floating in the antartic ocean into the land. I think this proposal was under consideration in Middle East a few years ago. The proposal was to tug icebergs that are about 80km long by 40 kilometer wide to the shores of Arab Emarates. By the time an iceberg of such size reached the shores it was expected to reduce to half its size. But still enough to provide enough water supply for a year.

3. The moisture rising at our coasts escapes over lower sindh and Baluchistan into India and Iran. If we can reduce the cost of ``precipitating salts`` that are currently sprayed over clouds to make rain we can change the face of our lower coastal areas.

I think it is just a matter of 20 to 25 years when we will run out of our current water supplies or already have polluted them to render them unusable. So the time is now.

The water distribution design to emulate for
dry conditions that exist in countries like
Pakistan would be the one currently in use in
Israel.
Pakistan needs to drift away from canal irrigation in a hurry. Not only does this waste
water but it harms the land through seepage.
Sprinkler and or Drip irrigation is the way of
the future. It is much more expensive than canals but people have to decide whether to pay more now
or pay a lot more later.

Ras

ps: the impact on the Indus ecosystem especially
on the Indus Dolphin has to be studied in detail.

I think it is a far cry for water.

The same can be said about IMF and World Bank aid.

Scholars were shouting against it and nobody listened.

Re: Temporal # 3

Thanks for the info...

Concerning the article, water shortages are a global problem and will pose some of the most difficult issues in IR in the coming years.

Ciao!

Pervez Hoodbhoy has lamented often about the Educational Crisis in Pakistan. And since `Hazrat Isa` is almost a regular contributor here the following article would be of interest to Chowkwalas. It is from today`s Hindustan Times.

``To bypass the systematic distortion of history on both sides of the border, three projects are being attempted by Dr Mubarak Ali and Mr Isa Daudpota, a physicist by training — publishing anthologies of the writings of Pakistani and Indian historians for the Ancient, Medieval and Modern periods; trying to write a history of the subcontinent with an Indian counterpart and a project for collectively writing a school text-book of the history of the subcontinent on the net. The last of these is the brainchild of Mr Isa Daudpota (email: daudpota@huic.edu.pk) a consultant with Hamdard University in Islamabad.``


.........more at http://www.hindustantimes.com/nonfram/060700/detFRO05.htm



----t

NOR ANY DROP TO DRINK

Water is an essential to lifethe adult human body is about 75% water, with up t 85% of brain cells are liquid. ven teeth are 10% moisture. The body needs a constant supply of clean water to remain healthy. Around 71% of planet is coverd in H20, but 97.5%of it is salt water and of the remaning 2.5% some 70% is frozen in the polar ice caps with around 30% of remaining fresh water present as soil moisture or in under ground equifers, less then 1% is available for direct human use. As the world marked International water day last week, experts meating at the world water forum in the hague estimated that 1 billion people world wide lack clean drinking water and around 3 billion do not have adequate sanitation.

(extract from time magzine )

Isa Sahib,

If you ever need a shower you can take a right on Constitution Ave, a left at Murree Road and end up on the Islamabad Club Golf Course, where the sprinklers run and the fairways are greener than the greens - all eighteen of them........ you can also take a quick shower twice a day at the Faizabad overpass where the sprinklers irrigate the lawns surrounding the monument to our nuclear prowess and the six-year-to-build National Highway wonder ....... shortage of water ? ..... and who are these horrid people who are building on the west shore of Rawal Lake so they can drain their lousy septic tanks into the lake where, as children, we went for midnight swims and, as young men arranged surreptitious summer-afternoon rendezvous with those heavenly creatures from IU and The Institute ......rumour has it that the father of our atom bomb lives in one of those polluting monstrosities ....... and what happened to Misriot Dam and Simli Dam and the fresh water spring that flowed down through Saidpur Village a few hundred feet above the Blue area where you now live ...... you think I am pulling your leg ? .... we used to hunt rabbits in F-10 which is now chock full of white-pillared monuments to heroine, corruption, venality and nepotism ..... it is true - there was plenty of water in Islamabad ...... we just didn`t take care of it......oh, but then that was the time when you could still hear the barking-dear cough in F-8 and the villagers of Saidpur carried axes to fend off the snow leopard ....... I hope those hideous high-rises don`t block your view of the beautiful Margallas ..................