Pakistan has one of the largest contiguous irrigation systems in the world called the Indus Basin Irrigation System (IBIS). The IBIS includes 3 major reservoirs, 19 barrages, 2 head works, 12 link canals, 45 irrigation canals, over 100,000 water courses, and millions of farm channels with a total length of over 500,000 km. It provides irrigation to over 22 million hectares of cultivated land, sourcing water from the Indus River and its tributaries as well as groundwater and rainfall. Surface water makes up the largest portion at around 104 MAF annually. Groundwater contributes another 41 MAF and rainfall provides around 9 MAF. Together this irrigation system provides around 69 MAF

1. AGRONOMY
Irrigation System of Pakistan
 Pakistan is basically an agrarian based economy.
 Total geographical area is 79.61 million hectares.
 Cultivated area is 22.05 million hectares.
 The total area under irrigation is 19.02 million hectares
 About more than 50 percent labor force is employed in this sector.
 Pakistan possesses the world’s largest contiguous irrigation system
commonly called the Indus Basin Irrigation System (IBIS).
 Irrigation system that consists of three major reservoirs (Tarbela,
Mangla, and Chashma ).
 19 barrages (Ferozepur, Sulemanki, Islam, Balloki, Marala, Trimmu,
Panjnad, Kalabagh, Sukkur, Kotri, Taunsa, Guddu, Chashma,
Mailsi,Sidhnai, Rasul, Qadirabad and Marala);
2 head works(Sulamanki and head Islam).
12 link canals.
45 irrigation canals.
107,000 water courses and millions of farm channels.
The total length of main canal system is estimated about 585000
Kilometer (36932 miles)
No. of major Reservoirs: 3
No. of Barrages: 19
No. of Head works: 2
No. of Inter-link Canals: 12
No. of Command Canals: 48
No. of Watercourses: 129000
Length of Canals: 56073 Km
Length of Watercourses: 1.6 million Km
Average Canal Water Diversions: 104.7 MAF
Groundwater Abstractions: 41.6 MAF
No. of Tubewells: >950000
Irrigated Area: 22.2 million hec
Average Escapage to the Sea: 39.4 MAF

2. Annual flow available in Rivers
(144.9 MAF)
Diversion to the
Canal Irrigation System
(104.7 MAF)
Flow into the Arabian Sea
(39.4 MAF)
Head of watercourse
(78 MAF)
Conveyance Losses in the Canal System
(26.7 MAF)
At Field Nakkas
(43 MAF)
Conveyance Losses in Watercourse
(35 MAF)
Water Available for Crops
(31 MAF)
Field Application Losses
(12 MAF)
River Average Annual
Flow (1922-61)
MAF
Average Annual
Flow (1985-95)
MAF
Average Annual
Flow (2001-02)
MAF
Indus 93 62.7 48.0
Jhelum 23 26.6 11.85
Chenab 26 27.5 12.38
Ravi 7 5.0 1.47
Sutlej 14 3.6 0.02
Kabul 26 23.4 18.9
Total 189.0 148.8 92.62
Surface Water Resources
 Total Inflow is 171 BCM
 Tarbela (10.38 BCM - 485 ft),
 Mangla (5.90 BCM - 380 ft)
 48 Canals (61000 km), 19
Barrages
 1,70,000 Watercourses (1.6
Million km)
There are three major reservoirs:
 Mangla dam.
 Terbela dam.
 Chashma berage.
 It was built on Indus river in 1976 in haripur
 Its gross capacity is 11 maf
 Live storage capacity 9.68 maf
 Due to silting, 24.6 % of the storage has been lost.
 It was built in 1967 on river Jehlum
 Its gross capacity is 5.88 maf
 Its live storage capacity is 5.41 maf
 Due to silting its storage capacity has lost 13.2 %

3.  It was built in 1972 on river Indus in mianwali
 Its gross storage capacity is 0.870 maf
 Live storage capacity is 0.717 maf
 Due to silting its capacity has reduced to 39.3%
There are three main important types of canals in Pakistan:
 Perennial Canals
 Non-Perennial Canals
 Inundation Canals
 These canals supply water throughout the year. Perennial
canals are the canals that are used to supply water to the field
and these are taken either from dams or barrages.
 Important Perennial Canals of Punjab are
Upper Bari Doab, Lower Bari Doab, Sidhnai Canals, Upper and
Lower Chenab, Upper Jhelum canals originating from Trimmu
Headworks and Canals originating from river Sutlej at Ferozpur,
Islam, Suleimanki and Panjnad Headworks.
 These canals run during the summer and the rainy season.
 Sidhnai canals from the Ravi.
 Haveli canals from the Chenab.
 Some of the Sultlej canals fall in this category.
 These canals run only during the rainy season when water
level in river rises. The quantity of water they supply is
uncertain. These canals, like other canals, are taken from the
rivers but the difference is that they get water when there is a
rise in the water level due to flood. Many old canals from the
Indus and the Chenab fall in this category.
Total length of about 800 Km.
Total capacity of about 100,000 cusecs.
 Chashma-Jhelum Link: Indus-Jhelum
 Taunsa-Punjnad Link: Indus-Chenab
 Rasul-Qadirabad Link: Jhelum-Chenab
 Marala-Ravi Link: Chenab-Ravi
 Bambanwala-Ravi-Bedian Link: Chenab-Ravi-Sutlej
 Upper Chenab-Balloki Link: Chenab-Ravi
 Qadirabad-Balloki Link: Chenab-Ravi
 Trimmu-Sidhnai Link: Chenab-Ravi
 Balloki-Sulaimanke Link: Ravi-Sutlej
 Sidhnai-Mailsi Link: Ravi-Sutlej

4. The groundwater has been in use since ancient times.
Groundwater meets about 40-50% of the irrigation water requirement, is
obtained by pumping water from ground.
About 44 maf water are being pumped by public and private tubewells.
Total no. of tubewells in Pakistan are;
Private Tubewells = >950,000
Public+SCARP Tubewells = 125000
On the average 10,000 tubewells have been added to the system annually.
 The third major source of water is rainfall, which is neither
sufficient nor reliable. Pakistan lies in an arid and semi-arid
climate zone. The entire Indus Plains (canal command areas)
receive an average seasonal rainfall of 212 mm and 53 mm in
the kharif and rabi seasons, respectively. Annually about 9 maf
rainfall is estimated to reach the irrigation system for crop use.
Ground Water
Head of Watercorse
SCARP Tubewell
(9 MAF)
Private Tubewell
(35 MAF)
Conveyance Losses in
Watercourse
(3 MAF)
At Field Nakkas
(41 MAF)
Field Application Losses
(12 MAF)
Water Available for Crops
(29 MAF)
15% 85% 5% 95%
72%28%
Rain Water
At Field Nakkas
(13 MAF)
Water available for Crops
(9 MAF)
Field Application Losses
(4 MAF)
72% 28%

5. Annual flow
available in RiversGround Water
Rain Water
Water Available
for Crops
(31 MAF)
Water Available
for Crops
(29 MAF)
Water available
for Crops
(9 MAF)
Total Water Available for Crops
(69 MAF)
 Irrigated agriculture is the major user of both, surface and
groundwater resources of Pakistan.
 The average annual river diversions for irrigation in the Indus
Basin are of the order of 104.7 MAF, to irrigate over 14.6
million hectares.
 Of this, 67.11 MAF on average are diverted during the kharif
period, while 37.63 MAF are diverted during the rabi period.
 About 77.4% of the total irrigated area of Pakistan falls in Punjab,
2.8% area falls in KPK and 19.8% in Sindh and Balochistan.
 Based on the statistics of the last 10 years, the area irrigated by
canals has increased slowly by an aggregate of 6% but its share in
irrigated area has remained constant due to the continuous increase
in the number of tubewells which now irrigate 20% more area than
10 years ago.

6.  The public irrigation infrastructure in the Punjab consists of 13
barrages,12 link canals and 23 major canal systems over an
aggregate length of 34,500 km.
 The whole irrigation infrastructure lies within the Indus Basin
System.
 It serves an area of 8.58 million hectares.
 In addition, there are 135 surface drainage systems including over
670 drains, with an aggregate length of about 6,600 km, which drain
an area of about 5.79 million hectares, within the 23 canal
commands
 Sindh has 14 publicly owned irrigation systems, which receive
water from three barrages across the River Indus.
 These systems, with an aggregate length of 18,000 km of
canals, serve an area of about 5.38 million hectares.
 There are 13 existing surface drainage systems in Sindh,
which serve a total area of over 3.5 million hectares and have
an aggregate length of about 4,800 km.
 New drains are also being constructed in the province.

7.  KPK has five publicly owned irrigation systems in the Indus Basin, which
serve a total area of 0.34 million hectares.
 These systems receive water from two headworks across River Swat and
Warsak Dam.
 In addition, there are six other canal systems, which serve a total of 0.13
million hectares of land.
 KPK has over 200 canals called `civil canals`, which are community or
privately owned.
 These irrigate an aggregate area of 0.83 million hectares. There are four
surface drainage systems in KPK comprising of 456 drains.
 These serve a total area of 0.37 million hectares.
 Balochistan has three canal systems, which receive water from the
Indus Basin System through Guddu Barrage and Sukkur Barrage,
located in Sindh.
 These canal systems serve a total area of 0.33 million hectares. One
of these, the Pat Feeder Canal System, has been improved recently.
 In addition, there are 431 independent publicly owned small
irrigation schemes, which serve 0.14 million hectares.
 There are a few privately owned small irrigation schemes too.