INDUS RIVER SYSTEM
The majestic River Indus, Originates at 16,000 ft. (5183) above sea level in the glaciers of the northern slopes of Kailash Parbat in Tibet. Starting as a trickle it collects rain water and melting snow from a catchment area of 360,000 Sq. miles (940,000 Sq. km) to become one of the mightiest Rivers of the world, ten times bigger than the Colorado River and twice as large as the Nile.
On its long voyage of 2000 miles (3000 km) it is augmented by ten major rivers: Kabul, Swat, Kohat, Haro and Soan in the Northern Frontier Province and Jhelum, Chenab, Ravi, Sutlej and Beas in Punjab. The ferocious river, more than a million cusecs (cubic feet per second) at its peak flood time, then passes through 400 miles (600 km) of the plains of Sindh to drain into the salt waters of Arabian Sea.
The Muddy water of River Indus and its tributaries have eons inundated the plains of Punjab and Sindh carrying about 400 million tones of silt per year that have, on the one hand, enriched the plains of Indus basin and, on the other, supported an enormously variegated and kaleidoscopical life in its path and its deltaic estuaries. Remains of so many human settlements scattered all over Punjab and sindh bear testimony to the generous endowment of Indus.
It is said that in the Jurassic period ( 160 million years ago ) Indus valley only existed up to present day Multan and drained into an ocean named Tethyes Sea.
The million tons of silt river Indus carries per day, claimed about 60 ft of land every year from the sea. From the times of the Mesozoic era and throughout the Cenozoic era (70 million years downward) as the bed of the river rose due to sedimentation and the river kept changing its course, at least seven times in the recorded history, whole of sindh was claimed from sea. Perhaps this theory needs to be more closely examined, but the presence of marsh lands in the middle of the desert, Rann of Kutch, where Indus river drained into the sea ages ago and the fact that in overwhelming cases subsoil water reservoirs in Sindh are as saltish as sea water, while whole of NWFP, and most of Punjab has sweet water, is hard evidence giving credence to the hypothesis.
While passing through Frontier and Punjab, the tributaries of Indus criss-cross the entire length and breadth of the provinces before draining into Indus. But when passing through Sindh and literally bisecting it, the great river enters as an enormous body water that submerges a swath of zigzagging land 600 miles ( 1000 km ) long and at an average 5 miles ( 8 km ) wide before cascading into the Arabian Sea.
This strip of land totaling 1.9 million acres (760,000 hectares) and known as katcho in Sindh, husbands 598,800 ( 240,000 hectares ) of riverine forests and 1,000,000 acres ( 400,000 hectares ) or rich grazing land.
Further down, covering the entire deltaic region, Indus has given birth to 650,000 acres ( 260,000 hectares ) of a thick mangrove forest, sixth largest in the world, that abounds in colourful marine and botanical life.
The quantity of water flowing in the Indus river and its tributaries varies very gently depending upon the quantum of snow and rain water in the catchment areas.
The recorded quantity is a minimum of 100 MAF (million acre feet) in the year 1974 – 75 corresponding to approximately 140,000 cusecs (cubic-feet per second ) of water flowing all year round, to more than 186 MAF in the year 1959 – 60.
Since the British conquest of Sindh (1843) and Punjab (1847) there have been continuous efforts at harassing the waters of Indus river system to irrigate the plain of sindh and Punjab.
Up till now 2 storage dams, 19 barrages, 43 canal subsystems including 11 major link canals have been built on river Indus and its tributaries to create the world’s largest contiguous man made irrigation network comprising of 40,000 miles (64,000 km) of canals, distributaries and minors.
The enormous irrigation system commands 34.5 million acres of land out of which 29.5 million acres ( 11,7 million Ha, 1988-89 data ) are canal irrigated using 105,000 water courses. The vast acreage under cultivation is spread under three million individual farms and consumes about 105 MAF water per year from the Indus river system.
The Majestic River Chained
Previous to British rule, irrigation in Indus Basin was dependent upon inundation canals like east and west Nara canal in upper Sindh and Phulleli and Pinyari in Hyderabad. The first man made canal was perhaps dug in 1639 by Ali Mardan Khan primarily to bring water from Ravi to Shalimar Gardens but its water was also used to irrigate some land around Lahore.
In Sindh the rulers of Kalhora Dynasty ( 1701 AD – 1783 AD ) were great canal builders and agriculturists. They built 10 mile long. Nurwah branching from the then inundation canal Begari; 2 mile long Shah-Ji-Kur and 20 mile long Date-Ji-Kur which are now absorbed in Warah canal. They also built Nusrat Wah, Murad Wah and Bag and Feroza Branches in central Sindh that have been absorbed by the present Rohri canal.
However The British visualized the tremendous potential of harnessing waters of River Indus and its tributaries into producing grain for the whole of India and cotton for the textile industries of Manchester. Therefore immediately after the conquest of Punjab in 1847, work on Central Bari Doab canal from Ravi was started ( 1859 ).
The success of Central Bari Doab canal was followed by Sidhnai canal, lower Chenab and Lower Jehlum Canals ( 1885 – 1901 ); Paharpur Canal ( 1908 ), Upper Swat canal (1914 ) and triple canal project (Upper Jehlum, Upper Chenab, lower Bari Doab ) in 1915.
With the completion of the ambitious Sutlej Valley Project in 1932, comprising of 11 canals and 4 head works, much of Punjab was brought under canal irrigated agriculture.
In the same year (1932) Sukkar Barrage was completed on River Indus opening up the plains of Sindh for extensive canal irrigation. Trimmu head work on Chenab was completed in 1939 followed by Kalabagh (or Jinnah) Barrage on river Indus. Three more barraged were commissioned on Indus after the partition. Kotri Barrage was built in 1955 closely followed by Taunsa in 1958 and Guddu in 1962.
With the commissioning of so many barrages and canals, substantial quantity of water was removed from Indus River System in order to meet the irrigation needs of the growing population of the country.
A massive depletion of water resources of Indus River System then occurred under the provision of Indus Water Treaty between India and Pakistan when a colossal mass of 33 MAF water was abruptly removed by surrendering three Punjab river to India.
(To understand how much water 33 MAF is, it should be noted that the huge perennial canals like Rohri canal and Phulleli, when they flow all year round, take about 3 MAF each).
Signed in September 1960, some articles of the treaty are as under:
Articles:
II (1) All the waters of the Eastern Rivers (defined as the stulej, Beas and Ravi)
shall be available for unrestricted use of India.
(2) Except for domestic use and non-consumptive use, Pakistan shall be under an obligation to let flow, and shall not permit an interference with, the waters of Sutlej Main and Ravi Main in the reaches where those rivers flow in Pakistan and have not yet finally crossed into Pakistan.
III (1) Pakistan shall receive for unrestricted use all those waters of the Western Rivers (defined as the Indus, Jhelum and Chenab) which india is under
obligation to let flow.
Thus Indus River System lost water of its tree eastern rivers in place of a loan to construct 2 storage dams, 5 barrages, one gated siphon and 8 link canals to divert some of the water of western rivers into the now dry eastern rivers, under the Treaty.
As per agreement Pakistan built the following 2 dams:
(i) Mangla Dam was built on Jhelum in 1967 to store 5.3 MAF.
(ii) Tarbela was also built on Indus in 1974 to store 9.3 MAF.
The loss of three eastern rivers and their 33 MAF; the two dams storing 14.6 MAF and the 19 barrages and head works taking 105 MAF of water per year have completed the process of chaining the once mighty Indus that used to flow into the Arabian Ocean, not so long ago.
Today, in most years, River Indus is a trickle of water in an otherwise dry bed of swirling sand. Only in some years, when is an extra ordinary rainfall in the catchment areas, does the flow of water become sufficient to be called a flood.
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