By Allah Bakhsh, project coordinator, FBLN SPO.
Introduction
The entire Kachi Plain in Balochistan, Pakistan, is devoid of fresh groundwater as the available shallow groundwater is saline. The only source of drinking water is floodwater that comes from local dry rivers passing through the plain. The Nari, Bolan, and Lehri are the major Rivers which irrigate the area and caters the drinking water needs.
Drinking water ponds
At the time of floods, the water is diverted to the manmade earthen ponds in different villages with different storage capacities, depending on the size of the village. Usually, floods occur in the area between June & August every year and in the spring season between February & April. The later floods are only utilized for the human and domestic animals’ drinking purpose and not for irrigation because of the approaching summers that does not allow any crop to germinate as the moisture evaporates due to the high temperatures in these months.
Not necessarily all village ponds get water in the seasons given above because at some locations, floodwater does not reach. Especially in June – August not all ponds are served because the priority is given to the irrigation of lands for crop cultivation. In another situation, the diversion bunds erode and water drains in major river passage.
The ponds receiving water in both seasons do not survive for a long period, and they dry up within 1-6 months depend on the size of the pond. In the cases where these ponds go dry, the local inhabitant moves to the neighboring villages’ ponds or the depressions filled with water in the riverbeds to meet the domestic needs, while the animals are driven in a flock to go for watering elsewhere, in some cases, travelling 1-5 km.
The role of shallow wells
Historically, rural areas excavate shallow wells within the dry ponds and river beds to collect seepage water, primarily to meet the drinking water demand. For this purpose, every household individually digs the well, as one well cannot meet the needs of a larger group of villagers. These shallow wells hardly yield more than 120 liters of water within 24 hours. People are morally bound not to steal water from such ponds that are personally dug up and owned by a certain household. If there is no immediate flood, such shallow wells do not survive beyond 30 days and also dry up. If further excavated and deepened, the soil collapses and renders them completely unusable.
Very recently, the FBLN team met with the officials of Qatar Charity and other philanthropists who were installing shallow boreholes up to the depth of 30-40ft and installing small pumps to get drinking water. Such pumps are installed now in a number of villages alongside the earthen ponds, whether filled or dried up. The procedure is that the villager approaches the charity and takes them on a reconnaissance visit to see the feasibility, which is mainly to see and observe the size of the pond. Normally, bigger ponds are preferred by the charity, having a wider potential for local aquifer recharging and prolonged water availability. The condition is that the charity will sink a borehole up to 40ft, and if sweet water is found, then all installation charges are borne by the charity. If the subsurface water happens to be brackish, the borehole charges will be borne by the local community and no further progress will be made on it. This agreement is probably due to the local villagers who insist for deep boring up to 50-60ft or beyond it and local experience shows that below 30-40ft water is saline. In all cases, if the water happens to be saline, further progress is abandoned immediately. This was a seasonal project which has already completed its operation in the Bhag tehsil area in the district Bolan, Balochistan.
This is further observed in Bhag town and other larger villages, where local inhabitants are installing such a machine after a shallow or deep borehole at their own cost. One such villager said that the total cost of this project is not more than Rs: 35.000 (about 200 euros). It is observed during the visit that the water yielded by these machines is clean in color with no turbidity. A suction pipe is installed with a foot valve to maintain the water within the line. In the borehole, plastic pipes are sunk, and the lower pipe consists of a perforated pipe (filter screen) and is wrapped with a piece of cloth, which serves as a filter to prevent sand from entering the borehole.
There is no further experience gained until now on this smart technological intervention, but one thing is clear: if the subsurface water goes dry to the depth of the borehole, the whole system can be unplugged, which can be reinstalled when the pond is filled again. It still works for more than 2 months after the pond apparently gets dry, thus prolonging the period of access to water and reducing the burden on the household.
As a whole, this is a better practice to get clean water rather than direct water from the pond, which may not be safe, and secondly, such boreholes yield water even if the water apparently goes dry, as long as there is water in the pond. The only drawback in this system is that it cannot be installed in those villages which are not electrified and contacted with national grid, unless options of solar pumping become available.
The work featured in this blog is implemented under the collaborative work on: Strengthening Participatory Organization (SPO) Quetta region, by:
