Water Balance, Supply and Demand and Irrigation Efficiency of Indus Basin

Byline: IJAZ HUSSAIN, ZAKIR HUSSAIN, MAQBOOL H. SIAL WAQAR AKRAM and M. F. FARHAN* Abstract. The Indus Basin water is becoming scarce and its demand in rising over for various uses. The water resources statistics is often questionable and based on guesstimates. Keeping in view this assertion, the intent of this paper is to estimate the supply and demand coupled with projections for future in various sectors of economy. The study provides information on water balance and water use efficiency estimate in the competing sectors. The total water available is 274 BCM, of which 130 BCM is available for use, however 62 BCM is lost in the system besides out flow to the sea. The empirical results further revealed that gross water supply for agriculture was nearly 190 BCM while its demand was 210 BCM showing a shortfall of about 20 BCM.