Welcome to the course page of the training on Water Accounting in Pakistan!
On this website, we will share the training material and assignments with you. There is a forum, that you can use to communicate with your instructors and fellow participants. You can also post questions, comments or suggestions.
Course introduction
As an agrarian economy that heavily depends on water, it is crucial for Pakistan to adopt a more integrated water management approach and formulate data-driven strategies to avert from the deepening water crisis. Limited storage infrastructure and a weak management system are aggravating the tensions between provinces as the water crisis continues to worsen.
In order to address the growing vulnerability of the Indus Basin, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), in collaboration with the Ministry of Climate Change, has developed a project titled ‘Transforming the Indus Basin with Climate Resilient Agriculture and Water Management’. The project is funded by the Green Climate Fund (GCF) and aims to shift agriculture and water management to a new paradigm in which farmers are successfully adapting to climate change and can sustain their livelihoods. There are three main components:
- Enhancing Information Services for Climate Change Adaptation in the Water and Agriculture Sectors
- Building on-Farm Resilience to Climate Change
- Creating an Enabling Environment for Continued Transformation
The first component focuses on building the country’s capacity to utilize modern tools and technologies for improved monitoring, analysis and dissemination of information related to climate, water, and agriculture in Pakistan. Within the first component, there are three sub-components: i) Developing a Water Accounting (WA) System, ii) Establishing an Evapotranspiration (ET) based Water Management System, and iii) Improving Availability and Use of Information Services.
This course was developed by FutureWater as part of the first sub-component of Component 1. The aim of this course is to enable stakeholders to develop water accounts at four respective scales: i) Indus Basin, ii) Provincial (Punjab and Sindh), Canal Command Areas and Water Course Level. Given the growing issues of water scarcity, climate change impacts, unmet irrigation demands and weak water governance in Pakistan, this water accounting system can aid decision-makers to design evidence-based policies and achieve sustainable water resources management.