Khawaja Zaheer Ahmed - PDMA

Punjab. The catchments of the Indus are estimated at almost 1 million square
km, and all of its major tributaries in Pakistan i.e. Kabul, Jhelum, Chenab, Ravi
and Sutlej Rivers eventually flow into it. The Indus basin is a large, fertile alluvial
plain formed by their silt. This area has been inhabited by agricultural
civilizations” for the last over 5,000 years B.C.
30. “The upper Indus basin includes Kashmir, Gilgit-Baltistan the KP and the
northern Punjab; the lower Indus basin begins at Panjnad also in the Punjab (the
confluence of the eastern tributaries of the Indus) and extends south to the coast,
in Sindh Province. Out of the Indus, Jhelum, Chenab, Ravi and Sutlej rivers that
pass through the Punjab, the Sutlej is mostly on the Indian side but a potential
source of surplus flood flows, if any. In the southern Punjab, the British
harnessed the irrigation potential over 100 years ago by establishing what came
to be known as the Canal Colonies, to facilitate emergence of intensive
cultivation amidst semi-arid conditions to usher in a new social and economic
order”.
31. “Balochistan is located at the eastern edge of the Iranian plateau and in
the border region between Southwest, Central, and South Asia. It is the largest of
the four Provinces (347,190 km² or 134,051 square miles). The population
density is low but per caput water availability has gradually touched the stress
level. Much of the Province, south of provincial capital Quetta is sparse, desert
terrain with pockets of inhabitable towns, mostly near rivers and streams”. The
Kharan Desert is the largest, and is situated in most of Kharan and Chaghi
districts. Recent development of Gwadar port has opened the prospects to
revitalize its economy.
32. There are two major dams and 19 barrages and several head works. The
Tarbela Dam on the Indus in KP and the Mangla Dam on the Jhelum, on the
boundary of the Punjab and AJK, both built as part of the Indus Basin Project.
The Warsak Dam on the Kabul River near Peshawar is much smaller. These
dams, together with a series of headworks and barrages built during the British
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