How High Efficiency Irrigation System in Pakistan can help us in saving water for our future generations?

Water scarcity is one of Pakistan’s biggest challenges, even more pressing than terrorism. The United Nations (UN) has also warned of serious water shortages. According to the World Resources Institute, Pakistan could become the region’s most water-stressed country and rank 23rd globally by 2040. “No person in Pakistan, whether from the north with its more than 5,000 glaciers, or from the south with its ‘hyper deserts’, will be immune to this,” said Neil Buhne, UN humanitarian coordinator for Pakistan. [1]

As an agricultural country, Pakistan risks economic losses unless it adopts more efficient farm management practices.

What’s High Efficiency Irrigation System (HEIS)?

As the name suggest, it’s a system that is made for irrigating crops in the most efficient way. It is reported that High Efficiency irrigation system (HEIS) requires less water, efficiently uses nutrients and addresses various crop production issues.

How High Efficiency Irrigation System (HEIS) can help us in fighting water scarcity?

The benefits of High Efficiency Irrigation System (HEIS) can be understood by its comparison with Flood Irrigation method.

• In flood irrigation, water is directly exposed to the sun which causes fast evaporation whereas in the case of HEIS, less exposure to the sun causes minimum evaporation which saves water.
• In flood irrigation, water is given to all field which means that those parts of the field where there is no vegetation is also irrigated. This issue is resolved with HEIS. Using HEIS, the water is only given to the root zone of the field which saves water.

Other than that, HEIS also helps increase the yield and produce better quality food due to balance in the use of water and fertilizers.

The above discussion concludes that it’s the right time to teach our farmers to shift from our old farming practices towards High Efficiency Irrigation System because it may play an important role in resolving the issue of water scarcity and making farmer progressive.

References:
[1] Un.org.pk. (2018). Water insecurity | United Nations in Pakistan.
Available at: https://www.un.org.pk/water-insecurity/ [Accessed 15 Sep. 2018].