Abstract
This chapter explores the applicability of the Water-Energy-Food nexus framework for the Indus Basin of Pakistan. It introduces the importance of linking water, energy, and food resources, and current sectoral gaps in Pakistan. To better understand these gaps and linkages, the chapter shows that the water-energy-food nexus is not an entirely new idea or practice in the Indus Basin. Although the terminology is new, integration of various sorts was common up to the mid-nineteenth century. The modern sectoral breaks arose with the development of large-scale colonial canal irrigation, administered under its own spatial jurisdictions, and further institutional gaps arose with the growth of electric power and fossil fuel programs. The chapter then lays out a framework for understanding the linkages among these sectors as a nexus that entails a broad range of perspectives, levels, and scales. This framework is used to characterise the problems associated with sectoral fragmentation, and then to identify ways forward in analytic, governance, and societal terms.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Ahmad M, Kutcher GP (1992) Irrigation planning with environmental considerations: a case study of Pakistan’s Indus Basin. World Bank Technical Paper No. 166. The World Bank, Washington, DC
Ahmad Z, Asad EU, Muhammad A et al (2013) Development of a low-power smart water meter for discharges in Indus Basin irrigation networks. In: Shaikh FK, Chowdhry BS, Ammari HM et al (eds) Wireless sensor networks for developing countries. Springer, Berlin/Heidelberg
Ahmad B et al (2020) Impact of institutional features on the overall performance assessment of participatory irrigation management: farmers’ response from Pakistan. Water 12:497. https://doi.org/10.3390/w12020497
Akhter M (2015) Infrastructure nation: state space, hegemony, and hydraulic regionalism in Pakistan. Antipode 47(4):849–870. https://doi.org/10.1111/anti.12152
Akhter M (2017) Desiring the data state in the Indus Basin. Trans Inst Br Geogr 42:377–389. https://doi.org/10.1111/tran.12169
Albrecht TR, Crootof A, Scott CA (2018) The water-energy-food nexus: a systematic review of methods for nexus assessment. Environ Res Lett 13(4):043002. https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/aaa9c6
Ali I (1988) The Punjab under imperialism, 1885–1947. Princeton University Press, Princeton
Arfan M, Ansari K, Ullah A et al (2020) Agenda setting in water and IWRM: discourse analysis of water policy debate in Pakistan. Water 12(6):1656. https://doi.org/10.3390/w12061656
Asian Development Bank (2006) Punjab irrigated agriculture investment program. https://www.adb.org/projects/37231-013/main. Accessed 4 Aug 2020
Asian Development Bank (2018) Completion report: Punjab irrigated agriculture investment program. https://www.adb.org/projects/documents/pak-37231-013-pcr. Accessed 4 Aug 2020
Awan UK, Anwar A, Ahmad W, Hafeez M (2016) A methodology to estimate equity of canal water and groundwater use at different spatial and temporal scales: a geo-informatics approach. Environ Earth Sci 75:409. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-015-4976-4
Bedi BPL (2003) Harvest from the desert: the life and work of Sir Ganga Ram. National College of Arts, Lahore
Benson D, Gain A, Rouillard J (2015) Water governance in a comparative perspective: from IWRM to a ‘nexus’ approach? Water Alter 8(1):756–773
Biggs EM, Bruce B, Boruff B et al (2015) Sustainable development and the water–energy–food nexus: a perspective on livelihoods. Environ Sci Policy 54:389–397. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsci.2015.08.002
Briscoe J, Qamar U, Contijoch M et al (2005) Pakistan’s water economy: running dry. World Bank, Washington, DC
Crooke W (1989 reprint) A glossary of north Indian peasant life. Oxford University Press, New Delhi
Diamond J (2005) Collapse: how societies choose to fail or succeed. Penguin, London
Dorosh P, Niazi MK, Nazli, H (2006). A social accounting matrix for Pakistan, 2001-02: methodology and results. PIDE Working Paper No. 2006:9, Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE), Islamabad
Duloy JH, O’Mara GT (1984) Issues of efficiency and interdependence in water resource investments: lessons from the Indus Basin of Pakistan. World Bank Staff Working Paper 665, World Bank, Washington, DC
Ferroukhi R, Nagpal D, Lopez-Peña A et al (2015) Renewable energy in the water, energy and food nexus. IRENA, Abu Dhabi
Freeman D, Bhandarkar V, Sinn E et al (1989) Local organizations for social development: concepts and cases of irrigation organization. Westview Press, Boulder
Ghani HU, Silalertruksa T, Gheewala SH (2019) Water-energy-food nexus of bioethanol in Pakistan: a life cycle approach evaluating footprint indicators and energy performance. Sci Total Environ 687:867–876. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.05.465
Gill MA, Mushtaq K (1998) Managing irrigation for environmentally sustainable agriculture in Pakistan: case study of Agriculture Department of Punjab province. IIMI Report No. C-!0, International Irrigation Management Institute, Lahore
Gilmartin D (1994) Scientific empire and imperial science: colonialism and irrigation technology in the Indus Basin. J Asian Stud 53(4):1127–1149. https://doi.org/10.2307/2059236
Gilmartin D (2003) Water and waste: nature, productivity and colonialism in the Indus Basin. Econ Polit Wkly 38(48):5057–5065
Gilmartin D (2020) Blood and water: the Indus River Basin in modern history. University of California Press, Berkeley
Giordano M, Shah T (2014) From IWRM back to integrated water resources management. Int J Water Res Dev 30(3):364–376. https://doi.org/10.1080/07900627.2013.851521
Hassan et al (2019) Future water demand modelling using water evaluation and planning: a case study of the Indus Basin in Pakistan. Sustain Water Resour Manag 5:1903–1915. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40899-019-00343-0
ICIMOD (2020) Indus Basin Initiative. International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), Kathmandu, Nepal. https://www.icimod.org/initiative/indus-basin-initiative/. Accessed 27 July 2020
Imran MA, Ali A, Ashfaq M et al (2018) Impact of Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) practices on cotton production and livelihood of farmers in Punjab, Pakistan. Sustainability 10(6):2101. https://doi.org/10.3390/su10062101
International Resources Group (2010) Pakistan Integrated Energy Model (Pak-IEM). Model Design Report, Volume 1. Report prepared for Asian Development Bank, Islamabad, Pakistan. https://www.decisionwaregroup.com/assets/pakiem_model-design-report_final-update.pdf. Accessed 25 Jul 2020
Kamal S, Amir P, Mohtadullah K (2012) Development of Integrated River Basin Management (IRBM) for Indus Basin: challenges and opportunities. WWF-Pakistan, Lahore
Keskinen M, Guillaume JHA, Kattelus M et al (2016) The water-energy-food nexus and the transboundary context: insights from large Asian rivers. Water 8(5):193. https://doi.org/10.3390/w8050193
Kirby M, Mobin-ud-Din A (2016) Time series (1980–2012) crop areas and production in the districts and canal commands of Pakistan. A report prepared under the Sustainable Development Investment Portfolio of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, CSIRO Land and Water, Australia
Konar M, Hussein Z, Hanaski N et al (2013) Virtual water trade flows and savings under climate change. Hydrol Earth Syst Sci 17:3219–3234. https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-17-3219-2013
Kurian M, Dietz T (2013) Leadership on the commons: Wealth distribution, co-provision and service delivery. J Dev Stud 49(11):1532–1547
Lenton R, Muller M (2009) Integrated water resources management in practice: better water management for development. Routledge, New York
Lieftinck P, Sadove AR, Creyke TC (1968) Water and power resources of West Pakistan. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore
Liu J, Hull V, Godfray HCG et al (2018) Nexus approaches to global sustainable development. Nat Sustain 1(9):466–476. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-018-0135-8
LUMS Centre for Water Informatics and Technology (2020) Workshop on Nature Inspired Sustainable Agriculture. LUMS Centre for Water Informatics and Technology (WIT) https://wit.lums.edu.pk/news/general-news/wit-holds-workshop-nature-inspired-sustainable-agriculture. Accessed 27 July 2020
Maass A, Hufschmidt MM, Dorfman R et al (eds) (1962) Design of water resource systems. Harvard University Press, Cambridge
Meadows A, Meadows P (eds) (1999) The Indus River: biodiversity, resources, humankind. Oxford University Press, Karachi
Michel AA (1967) The Indus Rivers: a study of the effects of partition. Yale University Press, New Haven
Ministry of Water Resources (2018) National water policy and water charter. Ministry of Water Resources, Government of Pakistan. https://mowr.gov.pk/index.php/national-water-policy-2018/. Accessed 10 Aug 2020
Muhammad A, Haider B, Ahmad Z (2016) IoT enabled analysis of irrigation rosters in the Indus Basin Irrigation System. Procedia Engineering 154:229–235. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.proeng.2016.07.457
Mustafa D (2007) Social construction of hydropolitics: the geographical scales of water and security in the Indus Basin. Geogr Rev 97(4):484–501. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1931-0846.2007.tb00408.x
Mustafa D (2013) Water resource management in a vulnerable world: the hydro-hazardscape of climate change. I.B. Tauris, London
Naqvi SA (2013) Indus waters and social change: the evolution and transition of agrarian society in Pakistan. Oxford University Press, Karachi
Nepal S, Neupane N, Belbase D et al (2019) Achieving water security in Nepal through unravelling the water-energy-agriculture nexus. Int J Water Res Dev. https://doi.org/10.1080/07900627.2019.1694867
Norman ES, Bakker K, Cook C (2012) Introduction to the themed section: water governance and the politics of scale. Water Alter 5(1):52–61
Ostrom E (1992) Crafting institutions for self-governing irrigation systems. ICS Press, San Francisco
Perreault T, Bridge G, McCarthy J (2015) The Routledge handbook of political ecology. Routledge, New York
Planning Commission (2011) National nutrition survey. Planning Commission, Government of Pakistan, Pakistan Institute of Development Economics, Islamabad
Punthakey JF, Khan MR, Riaz M et al. (2015) Optimising canal and groundwater management to assist water user associations in maximizing crop production and managing salinisation in Pakistan: Assessment of groundwater resources for Rechna Doab, Pakistan. Final Report to ACIAR, Ecoseal
Qureshi AS (2005) Climate change and water resources management in Pakistan. In: Mirza MMQ, Ahmad QK (eds) Climate change and water resources in South Asia. Taylor & Francis, London, pp 197–230
Ringler C, Anwar A (2013) Water for food security: challenges for Pakistan. Water Int 38(5):505–514. https://doi.org/10.1080/02508060.2013.832122
Scoones I (2009) Livelihoods perspectives and rural development. Journal Peasant Studies 36(1):171–296. https://doi.org/10.1080/03066150902820503
Scott CA (2013) Resource-use efficiency, once paradigm now paradox: the socio-hydrology of waste. Paper presented at the AAAS 2013 Annual Meeting, Boston, 15 Feb 2013. https://aaas.confex.com/aaas/2013/webprogram/Paper9286.html. Accessed 4 Aug 2020
Scott CA, Kurian M, Wescoat JL Jr (2015) The water-energy-food nexus: enhancing adaptive capacity to complex global challenges. In: Kurian M, Ardakanian R (eds) Governing the nexus: water, soil and waste resources considering global change. Springer, Cham, pp 15–38. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-05747-7_2
Shah T (2008) Taming the anarchy: groundwater governance in South Asia. Routledge, New Delhi
Shah MAA, Anwar AA, Bell AR, Zia UH (2016) Equity in a tertiary canal of the Indus Basin Irrigation System (IBIS). Agric Water Manag 178:201–214. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agwat.2016.09.018
Shahid A, Siddiqi A, Wescoat JL Jr (2019) Reimagining the planning of irrigation and agriculture in Punjab, Pakistan. In: Khan S, Adams T (eds) Indus River Basin: water security and sustainability. Academic, New York, pp 89–415
Siddiqi A, Anidon L (2011) The water–energy nexus in Middle East and North Africa. Ener Policy 39:4529–4540
Siddiqi A, Wescoat JL Jr (2013) Energy use in large-scale irrigated agriculture in the Punjab province of Pakistan. Water Int 38(5):571–586. https://doi.org/10.1080/02508060.2013.828671
Siddiqi A, Wescoat JL Jr, Humair S, Afridi K (2012) An empirical analysis of the hydropower portfolio in Pakistan. Energy Policy 50(C):228–241. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2012.06.063
SRI-Rice (2020) SRI International Network and Resources Center (SRI-Rice). Cornell University. http://sri.ciifad.cornell.edu/. Accessed 12 July 2020
Stewart JP, Podger GM, Ahmad MD et al. (2018) Indus River System Model (IRSM) – a planning tool to explore water management options in Pakistan: model conceptualisation, configuration and calibration. South Asia Sustainable Development Investment Portfolio (SDIP) Project Technical report, CSIRO, Australia
Tahir Z, Habib Z (2001) Land and water productivity: trends across Punjab canal commands, Pakistan, IWMI Working Paper No. 14. International Water Management Institute (IWMI), Colombo. https://doi.org/10.3910/2009.155
Uphoff N (1992) Learning from Gal Oya: possibilities for participatory development and post-Newtonian social science. Cornell University Press, New York
van Steenbergen F (2020) Groundwater and surface water in the mega-irrigation systems of Pakistan: the case for conjunctive management. Water Knowledge Note. World Bank, Washington, DC. http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/174121579803266899/Groundwater-and-Surface-Water-in-the-Mega-Irrigation-Systems-of-Pakistan-The-Case-for-Conjunctive-Management
Vinca A, Parkinson S, Byers E et al (2020) The NExus Solutions Tool (NEST) v1.0: an open platform for optimizing multi-scale energy-water-land system transformations. Geosci Model Dev 13:1095–1121. https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-13-1095-2020
Wescoat JL Jr (1992) Common themes in the work of Gilbert White and John Dewey: a pragmatic appraisal. Ann Assoc Am Geogr 82:587–607. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8306.1992.tb01719.x
Wescoat JL Jr (2013) Reconstructing the duty of water: a study of emergent norms in socio-hydrology. Hydrol Earth Syst Sci 17:4759–4768. http://www.hydrol-earth-syst-sci.net/17/4759/2013/hess-17-4759-2013.pdf
Wescoat JL Jr, Leichenko RM (1992) Complex river basin management in a changing global climate: Indus River Basin case study in Pakistan, a national modelling assessment. Collaborative Paper No. 5, Center for Advanced Decision Support for Water and Environmental Systems (CADSWES), Boulder
Wescoat JL Jr, Halvorson S, Mustafa D (2000) Water management in the Indus Basin of Pakistan: a half-century perspective. Int J Water Res Dev 16:391–406
Wescoat JL, Siddiqi A, Muhammad A (2018) Socio-hydrology of channel flows in complex river basins: rivers, canals, and distributaries in Punjab, Pakistan. Water Resour Res 54(1):464–479. https://doi.org/10.1002/2017WR021486
World Bank (2017) Pakistan – Punjab irrigated agriculture productivity improvement program project: additional financing. World Bank, Washington, DC. http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/448911512270028837/Pakistan-Punjab-Irrigated-Agriculture-Productivity-Improvement-Program-Project-additional-financing
World Bank (2020) South Asia Water Initiative (SAWI). https://wwwworldbankorg/en/programs/sawi Accessed 27 July 2020
Wright R (2009) The ancient Indus: urbanism, economy and society. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
WSIPS (1990) Water sector investment planning study. 5 vols. WAPDA and World Bank, World Bank Publications
Yang YCE, Brown C, Yu W et al (2014) Water governance and adaptation to climate change in the Indus River Basin. J Hydrol 519(PC):2527–2537. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2014.08.055
Yang YE, Ringler C, Brown C, Mondal MAH (2016) Modeling the agricultural water–energy–food nexus in the Indus River Basin, Pakistan. J Water Resour Plan Manag 142(12):04016062
Young W, Anwar A, Bhatti T et al. (2019) Pakistan: getting more from water. World Bank, Washington, DC. https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/31160
Yu W, Yang YC, Savitsky A et al (2013) The Indus Basin of Pakistan: The impacts of climate risks on water and agriculture, Directions in development series. World Bank, Washington DC
Zaidi S, Bhutta Z, Hussain SS, Rasanathan K (2018) Multisector governance for nutrition and early childhood development: overlapping agendas and differing progress in Pakistan. BMJ Glob Health 3(Suppl 4):e000678. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjgh-2017-000678
Zimmerer K, de Haan S (eds) (2019) Agrobiodiversity: integrating knowledge for a sustainable future. MIT Press, Cambridge
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2021 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Wescoat, J.L., Ahmed, W., Burian, S., Punthakey, J.F., Shahid, A. (2021). Examining Irrigated Agriculture in Pakistan with a Water-Energy-Food Nexus Approach. In: Watto, M.A., Mitchell, M., Bashir, S. (eds) Water Resources of Pakistan. World Water Resources, vol 9. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-65679-9_9
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-65679-9_9
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-65678-2
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-65679-9
eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental ScienceEarth and Environmental Science (R0)