Water Based Ecosystems Services and Poverty Linkages Within The
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PART II F4 Case Study: Water based ecosystems services and poverty linkages within the Desakota Phenomenon:The case study of Arid Highland Ecosystems in the Balochistan Province of Pakistan Fawad Khan1 and Daanish Mustafa2 Regional Description The case study was undertaken in the arid highland ecosystems of the Balochistan province of Pakistan. The purpose of the case study is to provide an ‘evidence-based story’ to illustrate changes in impacts and opportunities in the Pishin-Quetta-Mastung corridor, in the context of a social, technological and institutional transition described as desakota in this report (Figure 1). The focus in this case study, as in the overall report is on delivery/management of water-based ecosystem services and livelihood/poverty patterns. The fulcrum of our narrative will be the ongoing transition in groundwater tapping technologies (from the ancient karez (qanat) system to tubewells) and the associated social, institutional and environmental changes. The impending climate change and associated scenarios provide the context within which, the ongoing trends must be interpreted. Towards that end, also included is a brief outline and review of the possible meso scale scenarios for the region. The case study will draw upon published and unpublished—grey literature in addition to the results of a rapid rural appraisal (RRA) conducted in the area. The study region is characterised by dry winds, cold winters and hot summers (Chaudhry 2000). The average minimum temperature varies from 8-15°C and the maximum temperature varies from 24-31.5°C (IUCN 2006). The area has a variable rainfall, averaging 200 to 280 mm/year, with maximum rainfall occurring from January to April (70%) (IUCN 2006). There is only one climatic station in the region, located in Quetta (IUCN 2006), which recorded an average annual rainfall of 276 mm between 1990 and 1999 (EarthTrends 2003). A study of precipitation trends in Quetta showed that the cumulative probability of sufficient rainfall for spring sowing is 93% (Rees and Samiullah 2000). Precipitation varies topographically: the plains and lower highlands receive monsoon rainfall during July and August, whilst the upper highlands receive rainfall from storms arriving from the Persian plateau during February and March (Chaudhry 2000). According to Chaudry (2000), evaporation rates in the region are between 3000 and 5000 mm per year, whereas IUCN (2006) quote potential evapotranspiration rates of 5.5 to 6.0 mm/day. These high potential water loss rates result in salt accumulation in soils (Irshad 2007) and, as a consequence of low precipitation and high evapotranspiration, there is little surface water. Short rivers originate in the hills of Balochistan and drain into shallow lakes or are absorbed by the sandy desert soils, but these have a small capacity (Majeed and Ali, undated). To increase surface storage, the Bund Khushdil Khan reservoir in Pishin district was built in 1890 and enlarged in 1 Institute for Social and Environment Transition (ISET) – Pakistan 2 Department of Geography, Kings College London 1 1914, but this has a drastically reduced capacity as a result of siltation (BSSIP 2007). Low water availability has meant that the total cultivated land (2.09 million hectares) despite all the agricultural development, constitutes only 6 percent of the geographical area of Balochistan province, of which only 580,000 hectares are irrigated through perennial water sources. The remaining land is rain fed or flood/rain irrigated, also known as spate irrigation (IUCN, Govt. of Balochistan 2000). The Pishin-Lora groundwater catchment supports three ecoregions, which vary in distribution with elevation and precipitation levels (see Figure 3). East Afghan montane conifer forests (classified as temperate coniferous forests) dominate east of Quetta, as the area is under the influence of monsoon rainfall (Olson et al. 2001). Forest composition changes with elevation: at lower elevations, lower rainfall supports dry coniferous species, such as Pinus gerardiana and Quercus baloot; whilst higher rainfall at higher elevations allows mixing of coniferous and deciduous species (Olson et al. 2001). North of Pishin, vegetation is classified as Sulaiman Range alpine meadow (montane grasslands and shrublands). This ecoregion is dominated by Alpine steppe forest, with sparse tree cover in gullies, and provides an important floristic transition zone between the Paleoarctic north and Indo-Malayan areas. Consequently, the ecoregion supports a high diversity of 50 mammal species (one endemic species) and 150 bird species (Olson et al. 2001). In the drier areas west and south of Mastung, Balochistan xeric woodland dominates. This medium-altitude arid to semiarid scrub forest supports a tropical steppe flora at lower elevations (below 1500m) and open xeric woodlands at higher elevations (1500 to 2000m)(Olson et al. 2001). These high elevation rangelands are critical to the pastoralist segment of the economy of the region. Province wide, pastoralism and agro-pastoralism constitute a substantial 30% but decreasing proportion of the provincial economy, while the sedentary agriculture dependent mostly on groundwater constitutes 35% but growing proportion. Although pastoralism based on small livestock—goats and sheept is diminishing as a proportion of the economy the absolute number of livestock had been doubling ever decade until the onset of the drought in late 1990s (Gils and Baig 1992). Since the abatement of the drought in 2005 the small livestock numbers are in the process of recovering to their pre-drought levels. 2 Figure 1: Hydrological map of Pakistan, illustrating the potential groundwater The studyresource region around had Quetta historically (Geological been Survey dominated of Pakistan by -the sedentary agriculture and agro-pastoralisthttp://www. systemsgsp.gov.p k/inp akistan/the Pashtunground domi water.htmlnated) Pishin district, north-west of the provincial capital of Quetta and by the pastoralist and agro-pastoralist production systems in the Brahvi dominated Mastung district to the south-east of Quetta. The provincial capital Quetta has a population of 0.7 million? and is the regional center. While Mastung had been part of the princely state of Kalat, which was dissolved in 1973, Pishin had been part of British India and subsequently Pakistan. The region has progressively seen greater incorporation of its previously localized economies into the cash based national economy of Pakistan. In addition the Afghan war in the 1980s and then again since 2001 caused considerable security related issues in the area, which will be elaborated on in the sections below. The geopolitical tensions around the region have combined with the ethno-religious revivalism in the area to form a suitable environment for violent conflict. The degradation of ecosystem services and resultant increase in poverty is likely to further add the class dimension to the already unstable social environment of the region. The consequences of such developments in the region are likely to reverberate much beyond the boundaries of Balochistan, or even Pakistan, as we have learned from the recent events. Characteristics of Desakota Systems in the Pishin-Quetta Mastung Corridor Balochistan was accorded the status of a province in 1970 and the national electricity grid was expanded to the province. This heralded an era of state sponsored modernization of agricultural sector. In the case of arid zones of Balochistan, this manifested in the proliferation of tubewells for ground water exploitation and popularization of water intensive cash crops such as apple orchards and onions. 3 Apples alone require about 1393 mm of water in a region with a potential evapotranspiration rate of 2125mm (IUCN 2006). Other important crops are grapes, apricot, cherry, pomegranate, wheat, potato, onion and sunflower (IUCN 2006). The first tubewells were installed in the early 1970s with heavy subsidies for both their installation and operation (van Steenbergen and Oliemans 2002). Under the continued subsidy on tubewell operation in the form of flat monthly electricity tariff, the number of officially recorded tubewells had sprung up from around 2000 in 1970- 71 to more than 14,000 in 2001-02 (Government of Pakistan (GoP), 2002). To this should be added the substantial number of private electric tubewells without a legal connection, as well as more than 11,000 diesel-driven wells in the valleys that were not yet connected to the electricity grid (GoP 2002). Area of land irrigated from groundwater in Balochistan has increased from 22% in 1989 to 34.5% in 1998, with tubewells alone accounting for 22.8% (Chaudhry 2000). The shift to tubewells has meant that the Pishin Lora groundwater catchment underlying the field area is now the most critically stressed in terms of groundwater exploitation in the northern part of Balochistan (Figure 2). Table 1 Average declines in groundwater levels in the Pishin Lora basin Average Water Table Decline 0 -2 -4 -6 -8 -10 -12 -14 -16 meters (cumulative) -18 1983 Pishin 1985 1987 1989 1991 1993 1995 1997 1999 Pishin Mastung Source: Chaudhry 2000 4 As mentioned earlier the fulcrum of our discussion of the desakota type trends in the study region will be the transformation of the groundwater technology from the traditional karez system to tubewells. Karezes by virtue of their physical makeup, are highly labor intensive (Figure 3). The long underground tunnels and deep manholes warrant a large-scale use of the rudimentary technology of humans, animals and hand digging implements for both karez development and periodic repair and maintenance. The implication from a social organization perspective is that it was beyond the power of any individual to single handedly embark upon the development of this sole source of water, necessitating the forging of a collective to provide investment in the form of labor. Figure 3: Schematic diagram of a typical Karez. The water distribution in a karez is most often based on time division where a shareholder is entitled to the full flow of channel for a fixed period of time during a water cycle that revolves over 7 to 30 days, depending upon the cropping pattern.