The water table discussion really made the video. After so many videos on this channel covering deeply technical topics like modern lithography, I was disappointed when clicking on one about an agricultural and textile country. But the water table and irrigation involved the technical details I enjoy.
Unfortunately the one thing everyone ignores when discussing Pakistan is population growth. 100 years ago the population was 20million. Today, 220 million. There's your problem. There is no way to feed, house, and make prosperous and safe, 200 million new people in 100 years. Imagine if Germany's population has such an insane increase in the last 100 years. It would be a disaster. If you ignore the root cause, you solve nothing.
Have you heard of qanats? They've been used from ancient times. Hand dug tunnels that take water from underground water tables -usually in the mountains- to towns many miles away. Some of them go for ridiculous distances
@@ronchappel4812 Oh yeah, Arabic subterranean aqueducts. Being underground prevents sun-caused evaporation of most of the water, like a lid - a technique being examined for the USA's canals.
@@Metal0sopher For the time being the best course of action would have been to Reafforest the arid Balochistan and spread out the population to decrease the density enough for Re-Engineering of Urban landscape
Just a bit of context for those ancient "horizontal wells" of Baluchistan. These are likely Karez (or Qanat) irrigation systems, using a higher level of bedrock in mountainous areas. The resulting water table is located higher than the settlement and the water runs downhill in underground canals that have to be maintained by the community. The yield of these systems is typically small supporting a single village and a few orchards. They are also high maintenance due to sediment and clogging. They do require a fair bit of administration as to who gets what when and are often managed by some water dude whose job it is to open and close the gates and keep log. Used within their applicable scope and maintained regularly Karez' can be used for thousands of years. They are however not for scaling up and provide only the modest irrigation to help subsistence in arid areas.
Ahh brilliant info. After learning of Qanat systems (and wanting to explore them) I wondered if conditions would allow them in areas of California. I was unaware of the scaling issue though that makes complete sense. Nothing remotely close to industrial scale at the height of their use!
It is interesting how India's north western states like Punjab, Haryana suffers largely from the same issues. Over draining of ground waters and dependence on Rice and Wheat.
Asian countries that have Huge populations REALLY depend on calories per square foot/meter. Where Rice, Lentils and Grains shine. Pakistan also relatively often suffer floods from melting water or monsoons. It is hard to determine the "right" amount.
Indian government has pushed the rice crop season to sync with rains that has reduced the water consumption. However it has other consequences where the fields with the industrial waste are burnt causing massive smog, which earlier used to be cleared by rain, now gets accumulated due to onset of winters
Unless I missed it, I'm surprised you didn't go over subsidence as a consequence of aquifer over-extraction. The soil doesn't respond just like a sponge, because when water is extracted from soil, the soil compresses. The compressed soil is then able to absorb less water. If you keep doing this, the whole area has much less water retention capability. This means if you get a rainfall that the soil would have absorbed in the past, now it can only absorb part of it, and the rest runs over the top. This exacerbates waterlogging and increases topsoil erosion because of the extra surface water flow. It also (while not permanently, but over geologic timescales) damages the soil's ability to hold water. As the "sponge" dries up and collapses, this causes the surface land level to lower, which is soil subsidence. This damages structures like buildings and roads, and any buried infrastructure, and things like electrical poles. More rocky areas suffer in a similar way as soil, subsiding at a slower rate, but their aquifer capacity reduces also. In any case, the groundwater system has a capacity for extraction and recharge, and it's always much lower than the farmers living on it want to admit. Tragedy of the commons and the selfish bias caused by short human lifespans. Pakistan pumping up groundwater to somehow solve soil salinization was just plain stupid and only caused more problems.
I wonder if flood water could be filtered and pumped back into an existing well. using pump pressure to force recharging of the area near the well. I can not imagine that it would be cost effective but it may help store some water that would otherwise just runoff or evaporate. also help keep the soil from compacting
@@patrickglavin4686 groundwater system is not a spongesystem where you can force water into it. It takes time for water to permiate into the pore of the bedrock. Thats right Rock its not simple sand, soil and humus, you trying to pump water into rock.
It's an inverse relationship, the richer and more educated a person/couple is the less likely they are to have kids (Elon Musk not withstanding) Women have less children if they think more of them can survive for longer (and the social security system is strong enough so she won't have to rely on their children at old ages)
It kinda makes sense, if every couple has an average of 4 kids, then they already doubled the population. And if those kids had 4 kids too then it quadrupled.
We are experiencing with over pumping of groundwater and now Jakarta is sinking fast, some areas especially in The North are already below the sea level 😣
So the human response to impending sea level rise due to climate change is to... preemptively sink the cities. Satire is dead; reality has superseded it
Don't Java have other water sources? I remember many parts of Manila also used to heavily rely on groundwater as late as the 90s but now I hardly see any pumps. Like, we used to sell water from our pump when I was a teen but now everyone have tap. I wonder if Jakarta can at least stop sinking once the groundwater is recharged. Of course this meant that extraction should stop to give it to replenish.
Thank you so much for covering this. We recently built our Holiday home in Pakistan Punjab and I was always curious about where the water came from and if it would ever run out. From the reactions from most people, Pakistanis are not taking this issue as seriously as they should. Everyones response to "What if the water runs out" was "We'll just dig deeper".
@@muhammadmahd6429 its true tho, thats 90% of the peoples mentality there. Allah will solve it and if you doubt allah...you might be an apostate, and we all know what we gotta do with this if we wanna be good muslims.
@Invincible Exactly: in Christianity there is hell down below, but in Islam there is a whole water world with hotdogs and this the EXACT reason why they'll keep digging deeper. These guys are geniuses and I feel like an absolute fool. time to change gods real quick
I used to be a college professor/lecturer who taught how to give a good presentation. This video would have gotten an A+! Really well thought out and does a great job of providing background and context
It seems like Pakistan's water treatment and supply network is yet to be updated to deal with modern-day climate realities. So much political dramas in the central govt for decades, yet the political classes are letting public water supply networks to rust and decay.
The issue isnt even rust or decay, it's that they're using extremely inefficent transportation methods. They mostly use open, gravity fed, dirt lined canals which lose tons of water to soil absorption and due to evaporation since the area is so hot and arid. According to some numbers I've seen they're losing 60% just due to inefficiencies like that and as a result they're draining 93% of their accessible water resources. If they want to improve things they need to install some kind of modern irrigation system and transportation system. If they can get that 60% down to more reasonable numbers like 10-20% they could lower their water usage down by around 40%. That kind of savings would allow them to mainly just use river water which would allow them to abandon many of their wells which will cut down on depletion of the water table and would also allow more water to end up back in the river.
@@nutzhazel very true, and they are selling back the water they stole not only from Pakistan, but many other nations as well with underpaid or unpaid workers
In india ,state of Punjab which bordering pakistan have same problem , farmer of Punjab is refusing to shift their agriculture practices , it is very possible Punjab will see water crysis in future and make blame on government for thier wrongdoings while they warned by government for switch to another crop .
At a press conference on August 12th, 1986, US President Ronald Reagan said, “The nine most terrifying words in the English language are ‘I’m from the government and I’m here to help.’”.
They were turned into the grain feeders for rest of the country by deliberate government policies that encouraged the growing of rice and wheat above all else, every farmer in Punjab will tell you that rice is not native to the region and is an immense water guzzler and knows they have to switch away from it. At the time when the country was dependent on international aid and imports to meet basic food requirements this made sense, but now with significant over production of rice especially in states like Telangana, the government doesn't have to maintain the same policies (MSP, free electricity, subsidised water, etc). Now when the farmers of Punjab want similar levels of support to shift away from grains to pulses and other less water and fertiliser consuming crops the governments are not willing to give them that and are still maintaining the old system, as it stands now farming of these is not as profitable for the Punjabi farmer as farming of grains. MSP regime has to be extended by government for the crops they want them to switch to and slowly withdraw them for rice and wheat in Punjab while ensuring there's enough inventory in the FCI to maintain the PDS.
It wouldn't be a problem if the Central Government does less blabbering and takes more action. If they gave MSP's on alternative crops no one in Punjab will grow Paddy. Its not even a part of our diet FFS. How about you leave your room for once and touch some grass? Stop consuming the the propaganda that's being mouth fed to you by the government and use your brain for once.
Nepal should control its vast water resources and not allow India to have any of it since its India who restricted Nepal trade route and killed their factories. Hence crippling their economy. #BackOffIndia #DhotiOut
As an Indian who is neutral about Pakistan, this video was educative. This should be a wake up call for India too. Contrary to what most people think, the farming methods here are not that different. Stubble burning in Punjab causes Delhi to become a gas chamber every year. Sometimes, a neutral viewpoint is necessary to see things in the correct perspective and take remedial action wherever necessary.
@@rohanshende4338 Sir , my deepest apologies to you and your family over the loss. The video was about groundwater usage, not the political landscape. Indian Punjabi farmers are not exactly letting go of age old practices and end up wasting a lot of water. Israel has barely land that’s suitable for cultivation, and yet their methods are far superior than ours. The BIMARU belt will continue to pop out too many children that even the best agricultural methods of the world cannot sustain.
Indian punjab will become the poorest state in india soon... as its a feudal state with religious sikh extremissm unable to move forward with the science and trend while youth escaping the province.
Same problem on the Indian side of Punjab, Decades of subsidized electricity, excessive ground water exploitation, lack of crop rotation, is rendering one of the most productive agricultural land barren and has drowned the state in debt.
Dont tell this to any sikh punjabi's.... they are too stupid to understand this and may just curse you calling you as a Modi bhakt/agent trying to change punjabi way of life... 🤷♂️.. !!..
I will give a insider view(from my teacher) Petrobras got the short end of the stick after they opened the market in the 90's, the outside companies headhunted petrobras technical team (still understaffed to this day) and got the presal know how with them. Now we have a very strange situation, petrobras don't really want or can drill more in the camps since it will reduce the price of the oil and to drill they need more people that they don't have or want to hire to not drill to extract more oil. Bear in mind that the presal is under 3000m of water and a thick layer of salt that is very hard to drill because salt is plastic and grabs the drill bits.
Also the irony of Flooding Monsoons being the only source of water, yet drought plauging the land most of the year sucks. The only "Solution" would be extreme water processing and groung well injection of flood water, and that would be challenging and expensive. Basically do a more extreme version of Arizona USA water management strategy.
@@viewer-of-content because the US system in Arizona has worked so well. /s The people in Arizona have the strange ability to have irrigation canals deliver a constant supply of water that creates the illusion of permanent abundance while being able to ignore the fact that the water travels over 200 miles through the desert before reaching where it is used. And then the water is used to grown water intensive crops like cotton and alfalfa and exported to be used in the deserts in the middle east where it makes sense for them to import from Arizona instead of wasting their valuable and limited water resources.
@@hewhohasnoidentity4377 Arizona and Nevada actually have some of the best water management in the world, (Israel is good too.) The issue is with declining rainfall/snowfall, and surrounded by some bad actors, it becomes hard to retain adequate water supplies. California and Utah alone take more than 100% of the Colorado river's water supply, and have horribly inefficient Agricultural use. The situation is basically like Tajikistan /Uzbekistan/Turkmenistan /Kazakhstan and the Aral Sea Basin except: that Nevada and Arizona use water more responsibly, and their is less water loss in the mostly waterproof canals off of the Colorado River than in the Aral Sea Basin. Both Regions need drastic Water use reform And Evaporative prevention coverage of the canals. But a lot Can be Learned From responsible desert water usage entities like Nevada, Arizona, and Israel.
Truly thorough and well informed video, its as if you have a resident level information about the regions you present video essays about, nice writing team.
As a Pakistani, I am telling you that nothing is going to change but we'll just delve into much deeper problems. The People are concerned about Political Aims rather than the benefits of the country.
I would like to ask you a question if you don't mind..... Do most Pakistani people support the current government? And also is there freedom of speech in order to criticize the current government publicly? Pakistan has so many people living within it's borders and I wish it the best future...
@@thomaslove6494 Sure why not. 1- The situation is quite complicated. Most of the people from KPK, Baluchistan, Punjab and Sindh hate the current Government. Some do it because of being Pro-PTI and Anti-PDM, while some hate the Government for their absolutely foolish steps and dynastic approach to politics. Secondly, one can criticize the Government and get away with it, however, since it's Pakistan, and Politicians don't have the balls to accept criticism against them, they simply either arrest the other person or make them disappear. The most dangerous case is that of the army. Say anything against it, criticize it for ruining the country, and you'll be harassed, threats will be given and ultimately, you'll be taken away by them.
@@philoslother4602 tons of people in Pakistan get water from rivers too, most of the population is on the Indus and its tributaries. 90% of their food is supplied from farms irrigated with water from the Indus so even when people don't live near the river they're still getting supplied indirectly by the river.
@@philoslother4602 more like 95 96 percent its a big big club between army government workers rich feudal landlords etc. many layers with non muslims at the lowest.
8:50 And due to seepage, which also raises the water table. Many canals are not lined with cement. 16:00 Recently in the previous 5 years the government subsidised installation of drip systems
Well done (as usual). Thank you for all the work and then sharing. Heavy use of ground water is also an issue in certain parts of USA, with one of several possible examples being the San Joaquin Valley
You missed a very important detail. In Punjab it is normal for a home to pump ground water to the water tank. Specially cities near the rivers. We also have a what we call here "bore" in our home and we just use that instead of the city water supply.
Bro, Exactly same problems here in india just across the border. It's time for both the government to come up with sustainable solutions so that it doesn't damage the water table at the same time doesn't effect the yields either.
A low water table makes an area more prone to flooding when a sudden influx of ground water occurs. Thirsty ground is less able to soak up water because it becomes hard and impacted, with low pore size at the surface.
Aussies always watching our water supplys artisian basin Bore water especially . they went and closed all unused bores also helped to stop Canetoads/ferals spreading across Qld to wa etc success small natural springs apeared 10 years L8tr .
Well researched video as always. It is always impressive how deep you go into the subjects you choose. I have a suggestion though or more of a request. Can you do a video on the FCFA currency ? It being the last colonial currency there are various opinions on it. Most are negative but the currency also has some benefits.
Water pumped for irrigation from the Ogallala Aquifer is the principal driver of the region's mostly agricultural-based economy (market value $35 billion) Unfortunately, intensive irrigated agriculture is draining the aquifer much faster than rainfall can replenish it.Jul 29, 2021 USDA
Hi. I am Brazilian in here. I think that the same problem of land mismanagement happens ALL AROUND THE GLOBE. In here, it is sugarcane plantations (some plantations uses water from the Guarani aquifer) that end up fueling peoples CARS!! I think it is very stupid. Sugar some places get so dry at some months in a year, it have to suck a lots of water from it and just pump out, without greens vegetations that can replenish the ground water, the farmers dig deeper wells and the cracking starts all around some rural houses... Even in "ribeirão preto" in São Paulo have shown problems of terrain... the "grace mission" from Nasa already pointed out lots of satellite images from all around the globe with risk of going out of water...
Great video. The underpricing of environmental assets is a big problem all around. Current proposed Cap and trade policies would do nothing to address groundwater or soil depletion. There has to be a way to price all ecological assets, both for their current value and future value. We should be sequestering as much ground water as possible, given the droughts we will be facing in the future. My ideal scenario would be to move beyond pricing, and set hard quotas, but that smells too much like socialism to some people.
Hard quotas are one of the biggest causes for the water shortage in the US southwest. Farmers were given quotas and future amounts were based on previous amounts actually used. This created a need to use the same amount of water each year regardless of if the land was being used for a water intensive crop, a drought tolerant crop or even letting the land rest for a season. A large farm that rotates cotton, potatoes and rest had no choice but to keep water usage steady at a level higher than what is needed for the cotton so the water will be available to them in the future. Quotas are not the solution. Then again most large scale challenges can not be solved by the first thought upon learning of the issue. It is not as if in the history of civilization nobody had thought of water quotas.
@@hewhohasnoidentity4377 populists tend to always think there's an easy solution everyone else overlooks, usually because they're corrupt or greedy, and all we need is this one simple thing to solve the problem. Reading up on Soviet history and you'll see tons of examples of that reasoning: farms aren't producing enough due to corrupt farmers so they collectivize the farms, which backfires since people resented having to work the government farms and give the government all their food so they work less on government farms so they can cultivate their own farms on the side. Government decides to tax more to compensate for this but ignores the fact they can't really predict or even measure how much food is being produced across the country since they put people with little to no famring experience in charge of farms. Then they decide to encourage more grain harvests by taxing fruit orchards which were planted mainly for the wealthy so people cut down their trees and people get sick since now instead of a balanced diet they're living off of grain and little else. Then they tried to fix that issue by taxing cattle which would be redistributed among the population so everyone slaughters their cattle before the tax resulting in less meat and dairy and less livestock to pull plows. Later they tried to boost corn harvest by land reform and gave people farms to work in areas previously un cultivated since hey more land means more food, but they ignored the fact there was a reason the land hasn't been cultivated before and the farms underperformed and tons of people starved. Then they started draining the Aral seas tributaries to start irrigating some of that new farm land which caused soil salinity to get way worse and caused the sea to be completely drained.
@@hewhohasnoidentity4377 *"given quotas and future amounts were based on previous amounts actually used."* That's an issue with _how_ quotas are implemented, not with quotas themselves. Soviet Russia had the same issue.
There should be zero quotas. Instead, simply price the water correctly and it will be used sensibly. Quotas always causes some people to have accidentally too big quota and some other with too little. This is because nobody knows the future perfectly so nobody can set correct quotas either. And any decision power you give to some government workers about the quotas, the more corruption you will get in the long run. It's better to have zero decision power about quotas and simply increase the price of the clean water: do not give free or cheap electricity for pumping the water, set extra penalties for continuing the water once the watertable height is already too deep. That will allows those that absolutely need the water to still pump it and the people to whom it would be *easiest* to keep pumping more water, it will give more *incentive* to come up with a better implementation.
Thank you so much for covering this. We have so many problems in Pakistan and there is no awareness about these issues. Please do more videos on Pakistan and the region as it is not given much attention.
@H J no Punjab is not an exception it is a big issue throughout Northern and Central India, ground water supplies like 90% of irrigation in the indo-gangetic basin so UP, Haryana, Bihar, Chattisgarh, MP, Rajasthan, etc are not doing any better. Almost every major city too has groundwater issues, and in the south groundwater exploitation is a big issue in TN too.
California and many other US states love to overuse groundwater to, idiotic behavior is a widespread problem unfortunately. Denmark and Israel might inspire them and others to use less per citizens and recycle more water, Israel irrigation system is in a similar climate, drip irrigation I think one is called. It can be google
On paper I wonder if the annual rainfall looks normal. If it all falls at once, you get floods, which means it's not going into the aquifers, and 'normal' rainfall could end up in drought!
Very interesting to learn about groundwater. One question: I read somewhere that Nestle is bottleing water in Pakistan in a big way. The article argued that this is also hurting the water supply in the region. Is there anything in this claim?
Compared to agricultural use, absolutely infinitismal water use for bottled water, plus the Nestle bottled water isn't contaminated by shit so disease free also!
@@andrewallen9993 Thanks. That's not unimportant. I dont know how developed the water utilities in Pakistan are. As a European one is somewhat accustomed to high quality drinking water from the tap.
I can speak for nestle water usage here in Michigan as I put in a lot of effort to hate them properly. Turns out, all bottled water from all companies in Michigan, of which nestle is not the biggest, only works out to 0.02% of all ground water extraction. It’s literally a drop in the bucket. Michigan is probably the best place in the world for a water bottling plant. Nestle situated their plant in a place suffering from too much groundwater. Also, nestle has since sold this bottling plant in Michigan.
@@bastiangugu4083 We also get water in the taps here in Rawalpindi, Pakistan. (4th largest city of Pakistan) but still we prefer not to drink it. We just use it for other purposes. You either install a water filter inside your home ( not super expensive) or get water from a nearby filtration plant. (Typically installed by govt)
This issue, especially when hearing cotton and excessive water usage, reminds me of extinction of once 4th largest lake on Earth. That lake called Aral Sea, became Central Asian Chernobyl level of ecological catastrophe.
Same wise in Indian Panjab too where pumping out ground water led to draining of 3 ground 💦water layers... This is due to no revision of indus water treaty and deliberate sharing of riparian waters to non riparian provinces on behalf of no clear water sharing treaty.... Whether pakistani panjab Or indian panjab, both hv been bereft of their only natural resource of water for agriculture and daily uses....
I think Bangladesh shares many of these groundwater and land reform issue. But all Bangladeshi Rivers originates in India which makes it the issue complicated. I wish u'll make a video on this issue in Bangladesh. For the basics of this region, u can start with Professor Willem van Schendel.
And India gets more than 70% of its water from Nepal which Nepalese should control to control India and demand an unrestricted trade route. India is an evil nation for not allowing Nepal to trade freely. Once the Indian influence is removed from Nepal, Indian dhotis will get the pay back. I smell genocide against Indian origin dhotis residing illegally in Nepal soon if Indians don't get their shit together. #BackOffIndia #DhotiOut
It all comes down to education. Without properly educated farmers and well trained bureaucrats, no modern framing is possible nowadays. See Japan and South Korea farming. They suffered same poor fate of frequent flooding or draught like Southeastern farmers. But they and their gov't overcome many difficulties with long term irrigation projects and water usage plans. So they enjoy stable farming and lives much better off than SE farmers now.
Clean water - what comes down the river is questionable. Perma scape ( lots of little ponds) might solve this but as usual we just keep on cutting down trees. Just wait until they water their fields like California. ( not a good thing)
You are claiming a country where the majority of the population is directly dependent on the agriculture industry for income even though it is vastly inefficient in both water and land productivity has too many people for the land to provide for the people? I would suggest watching the video again.
@@MrGilang100 You can't base the risk of famine on year to year data. A country ideally should have food that lasts them 2 years, not a few months or a year. Most countries in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa import a large percentage of their food, so they're always at risk of famine. Between the war in Ukraine, the droughts in Latin America, and the floods in Pakistan, 2022 and 2023 represent the biggest risk of global famine in decades.
@@realtalk6195 In pre-globalization world, this is true, but, we are now globalized. A "food stock" metric is robust, but didn't tell the whole picture since we don't mainly grow staple crops right now. By that metrics Japan is on severe threats of Famine since their foods are disproportionately come from imports.
It's fascinating how frequently you use "pivot words", doubled, trippled, ground water, salinity, 1912 Provinces Of India, Indus Water Sharing Treaty of 1960, largest agricultural canal system in the world, British East India Company, Soldiery and Local Levies, PLATTE River Basin, Colorado River Sewage Intake, .... Milk time.
A tale of inviting in the engineers and the 'unforeseen results' double and re-double. Endless chasing new engineering projects to resolve them. It's like a protection racket. The straightforward answer is *Regenerative Agriculture (RA):* A complete rebuttal of the Green Revolution which attempted to industrialise (engineer) the process of making food and renewable products. The key elements of RA are: no mechanical disturbance of the soil; the development of an ever replaced humus layer (no bare soil); always have the growing area covered by something growing (cover crops); animal impact (eating the cover crop on rotation) --- to make soil (using earthworms, bacteria, fungi, arthropods) whose principal function is trap and hold rain water to absorb flood potential and deflect droughts. Low stress, low cost farming and yields are more than comparable with composting and foliar spray extracts because the crop is nutritionally richer. ps: Agronomists are also not advised unless they are fully-versed in RA. RA began in the 50's (Andre Voisin), biggest leap forward (P A Yeomans), and now practised on every continent.
Something I never got is that Pakistan has nuclear weapons, and a large quantity of coast along the Arabian Sea, and yet, at no point, did investments in nuclear power and water desalination happen at all in the past 70 years. In a country that so heavily relies upon a single river with a lot of desert and arid land in the center and south
Little correction : There were no Pakistanis or Muslims here 2500 year ago. That were Indians or Indus Valley Civilization. Muslims invaders came from Persia just few hundred years ago
Pak govt should replace canals flood water irrigation system with drip irrigation system . Make a well connected drip irrigation system with small dams , concrete ponds and pvc pipes .
Even in india using lot of water to farm rice 🍚, specially my state city Punjab we are spending lot of water 💧 which comes from underground, even thou we don't eat rice but our farmers farming rice in huge qnty
They need more damns. Couple that with proper pricing, and removing well subsidies, and problem is solved. It doesn't make sense to burn oil to get water because all water came from a higher location at one point. If you have to lift water too high at many points it means you are missing on some other water logistics or your economic incentives are wrong. Energy = Water in more ways than people realize. But if the water gets so low that you are doing a lot of pumping then you let high energy become low energy somewhere without tapping the value, and then are using energy to recover it. It's bad energy management and water management because the two are the same thing because its more reasonable than people realize to describe energy infrastructure and water infrastructure as the same pool.
@@greatwolf5372 break it up in half and that's how you pronounce it. "pun" + "jab". I'm not being a pronunciation police, I was just making an observation how everyone says poon. coz poon also means pussy
Thank you for your efforts. It would be nice of you if you cover Africa's water, like the Great Man-Made River in Libya or the water scarcity in North Africa and the Sahel region or.
Finding the money to do all this is a hard ask.... In a country where the people contributing 20% of GDP aren't contributing at all to taxes ... Seriously?
I don't think it can be a black swan because a lot of people see it coming. By definition you can't prepare for a specific black swan event is something that nobody predicted nor expected, it's a surprise.
Black swan would be an asteroid hitting Earth near Iceland, causing global havoc - water scarcity? It's an issue well known to governments and companies like Nestle alike. It's the general public that might not know the real water-predicament many societies will face in the near future, but that's not a Black Swan, just ignorance.
The overpopulation in Pakistan isn't the main cause but a symptom of Pakistan's underdevelopment and failure to industrialize and make use of its various resources. Pakistan would not have been overpopulated had it focused on development. Our path to progress really derailed following the assassination of Liaquat Ali Khan in '51, or maybe it was already doomed when Jinnah died in '48, or perhaps the real problems started when Bhutto implemented socialist policy that nationalized Pakistan's various industries in '72. The army's interference with Pakistan's democracy is also to blame. Why do our military foundations and corporations get more funding than our farmers? Pakistan has more irrigated land than the EU, but agricultural efficiency is extremely low because of the lack of mechanization, the ungodly volumes of water used to irrigate and the soil-eroding intensive monoculture practices used nearly everywhere in Punjab and Sindh. Sustainable farming and river management should be the first step for Pakistan right now before anything else. Agro-business profits have the potential of being multiplied by the dozens if the government would step up and subsidize the people that feed us. Later on, those profits can be used to help drive industrialization.
That terrible idea that you wrote last focus in forest agriculture not modernisation in agriculture since traditional farming used in Pakistan the damage was less compared to India in Indiana we had a problem due to destruction of soil microbes caused by modernisation pesticides, clearing of topsoil leading to barrenland , the govt intervened and stopped the farming encouraged the forest farm it made sustainable to nature and human lives Provided timbers of various trees, Provided soil health naturallyetc main problem is modernisation in Pakistan it will be great in economic ally and socially don't have to depend in imports of fertilizer s, and fuels largely. Here in India we started to abandon to modern agriculture and started to adopt traditional farming encouraging with financial assistance by govt Small part of land allocated for forest that provides ecosystem of lives
@@veerar8203 I agree that agroforestry is good, but I disagree with your comment overall because the main problems in Pakistani agriculture is a) the lack of machines b) the lack of quality seeds, and c) overuse of water. Modernization would actually solve all these problems. By using machines, less people are needed to farm more crops. By getting quality seeds, we can get better yield and have pest-resistant crops so no need for pesticide. And by improving water efficiency, land can be farmed more economically.
So they have to adopt water harvesting techniques used in e.g. India for a long time already to prevent the rainwater to run off unused. BTW: In former times people/children in Pakistan died because did not have access to clean water. Then western countries helped to build wells - well, there is a problem; the groundwater contains a lot of Arsenic so that people now die from this. Buying rice from Pakistan is also a bad idea for the same reason.
I did not expect to learn how groundwater works from this channel. Love Asianometry.
The water table discussion really made the video. After so many videos on this channel covering deeply technical topics like modern lithography, I was disappointed when clicking on one about an agricultural and textile country. But the water table and irrigation involved the technical details I enjoy.
Unfortunately the one thing everyone ignores when discussing Pakistan is population growth. 100 years ago the population was 20million. Today, 220 million. There's your problem. There is no way to feed, house, and make prosperous and safe, 200 million new people in 100 years. Imagine if Germany's population has such an insane increase in the last 100 years. It would be a disaster. If you ignore the root cause, you solve nothing.
Have you heard of qanats? They've been used from ancient times. Hand dug tunnels that take water from underground water tables -usually in the mountains- to towns many miles away.
Some of them go for ridiculous distances
@@ronchappel4812 Oh yeah, Arabic subterranean aqueducts. Being underground prevents sun-caused evaporation of most of the water, like a lid - a technique being examined for the USA's canals.
@@Metal0sopher For the time being the best course of action would have been to Reafforest the arid Balochistan and spread out the population to decrease the density enough for Re-Engineering of Urban landscape
Just a bit of context for those ancient "horizontal wells" of Baluchistan. These are likely Karez (or Qanat) irrigation systems, using a higher level of bedrock in mountainous areas. The resulting water table is located higher than the settlement and the water runs downhill in underground canals that have to be maintained by the community. The yield of these systems is typically small supporting a single village and a few orchards. They are also high maintenance due to sediment and clogging. They do require a fair bit of administration as to who gets what when and are often managed by some water dude whose job it is to open and close the gates and keep log.
Used within their applicable scope and maintained regularly Karez' can be used for thousands of years. They are however not for scaling up and provide only the modest irrigation to help subsistence in arid areas.
This is the kind of niche information I love to read, great post.
Isn't what they also use in North Africa?
Ahh brilliant info. After learning of Qanat systems (and wanting to explore them) I wondered if conditions would allow them in areas of California. I was unaware of the scaling issue though that makes complete sense. Nothing remotely close to industrial scale at the height of their use!
Thank you the information
It is interesting how India's north western states like Punjab, Haryana suffers largely from the same issues. Over draining of ground waters and dependence on Rice and Wheat.
Asian countries that have Huge populations REALLY depend on calories per square foot/meter. Where Rice, Lentils and Grains shine. Pakistan also relatively often suffer floods from melting water or monsoons. It is hard to determine the "right" amount.
Indian government has pushed the rice crop season to sync with rains that has reduced the water consumption.
However it has other consequences where the fields with the industrial waste are burnt causing massive smog, which earlier used to be cleared by rain, now gets accumulated due to onset of winters
@@KanishQQuotes ok
Not in Bihar . We have big Himalayan river .
nah.. in underground water is finished..
Unless I missed it, I'm surprised you didn't go over subsidence as a consequence of aquifer over-extraction. The soil doesn't respond just like a sponge, because when water is extracted from soil, the soil compresses. The compressed soil is then able to absorb less water. If you keep doing this, the whole area has much less water retention capability. This means if you get a rainfall that the soil would have absorbed in the past, now it can only absorb part of it, and the rest runs over the top. This exacerbates waterlogging and increases topsoil erosion because of the extra surface water flow. It also (while not permanently, but over geologic timescales) damages the soil's ability to hold water. As the "sponge" dries up and collapses, this causes the surface land level to lower, which is soil subsidence. This damages structures like buildings and roads, and any buried infrastructure, and things like electrical poles. More rocky areas suffer in a similar way as soil, subsiding at a slower rate, but their aquifer capacity reduces also.
In any case, the groundwater system has a capacity for extraction and recharge, and it's always much lower than the farmers living on it want to admit. Tragedy of the commons and the selfish bias caused by short human lifespans. Pakistan pumping up groundwater to somehow solve soil salinization was just plain stupid and only caused more problems.
I wonder if flood water could be filtered and pumped back into an existing well. using pump pressure to force recharging of the area near the well. I can not imagine that it would be cost effective but it may help store some water that would otherwise just runoff or evaporate. also help keep the soil from compacting
@@patrickglavin4686 groundwater system is not a spongesystem where you can force water into it. It takes time for water to permiate into the pore of the bedrock. Thats right Rock its not simple sand, soil and humus, you trying to pump water into rock.
@@patrickglavin4686 gravity is a cheaper force to harness than coal, petrol or the sun for e.g. for electric pumps
@@patrickglavin4686 Yes, that's one of the ways aquifer replenishment is done.
I can't express my love for the diversity of presented topics it keeps things fresh.
The most surprising part to me is that despite all its woes, the country's population has _quadrupled_ in the span of only two generations.
It's an inverse relationship, the richer and more educated a person/couple is the less likely they are to have kids (Elon Musk not withstanding)
Women have less children if they think more of them can survive for longer (and the social security system is strong enough so she won't have to rely on their children at old ages)
The same story across South Asia, Southeast Asia, Central America and Sub-Saharan Africa.
40 million to 225 million, so more like quintupled
It kinda makes sense, if every couple has an average of 4 kids, then they already doubled the population. And if those kids had 4 kids too then it quadrupled.
@@vincenttt8289 Why would every couple have 4 children
We are experiencing with over pumping of groundwater and now Jakarta is sinking fast, some areas especially in The North are already below the sea level 😣
holy shit, entire CITIES are sinking???
@@janedoeYT well yea basically
So the human response to impending sea level rise due to climate change is to... preemptively sink the cities.
Satire is dead; reality has superseded it
@@janedoeYT not the entire city, only some place in the northen coast. And preventive measures has been planned
Don't Java have other water sources? I remember many parts of Manila also used to heavily rely on groundwater as late as the 90s but now I hardly see any pumps. Like, we used to sell water from our pump when I was a teen but now everyone have tap.
I wonder if Jakarta can at least stop sinking once the groundwater is recharged. Of course this meant that extraction should stop to give it to replenish.
Thank you so much for covering this. We recently built our Holiday home in Pakistan Punjab and I was always curious about where the water came from and if it would ever run out. From the reactions from most people, Pakistanis are not taking this issue as seriously as they should. Everyones response to "What if the water runs out" was "We'll just dig deeper".
Allah will give you water and hotdog
@@random_IIITK okay Pajeet
@@muhammadmahd6429 its true tho, thats 90% of the peoples mentality there. Allah will solve it and if you doubt allah...you might be an apostate, and we all know what we gotta do with this if we wanna be good muslims.
@Invincible Exactly: in Christianity there is hell down below, but in Islam there is a whole water world with hotdogs and this the EXACT reason why they'll keep digging deeper. These guys are geniuses and I feel like an absolute fool. time to change gods real quick
I used to be a college professor/lecturer who taught how to give a good presentation. This video would have gotten an A+! Really well thought out and does a great job of providing background and context
It seems like Pakistan's water treatment and supply network is yet to be updated to deal with modern-day climate realities. So much political dramas in the central govt for decades, yet the political classes are letting public water supply networks to rust and decay.
The issue isnt even rust or decay, it's that they're using extremely inefficent transportation methods. They mostly use open, gravity fed, dirt lined canals which lose tons of water to soil absorption and due to evaporation since the area is so hot and arid. According to some numbers I've seen they're losing 60% just due to inefficiencies like that and as a result they're draining 93% of their accessible water resources.
If they want to improve things they need to install some kind of modern irrigation system and transportation system. If they can get that 60% down to more reasonable numbers like 10-20% they could lower their water usage down by around 40%. That kind of savings would allow them to mainly just use river water which would allow them to abandon many of their wells which will cut down on depletion of the water table and would also allow more water to end up back in the river.
Not just that at this point they are letting almost everything to rust and decay
Go ask Nestle and see what they did in Pakistan.
@@nutzhazel very true, and they are selling back the water they stole not only from Pakistan, but many other nations as well with underpaid or unpaid workers
@@nutzhazel Google doesn't turn up anything. Got a link?
In india ,state of Punjab which bordering pakistan have same problem , farmer of Punjab is refusing to shift their agriculture practices , it is very possible Punjab will see water crysis in future and make blame on government for thier wrongdoings while they warned by government for switch to another crop .
At a press conference on August 12th, 1986, US President Ronald Reagan said, “The nine most terrifying words in the English language are ‘I’m from the government and I’m here to help.’”.
They were turned into the grain feeders for rest of the country by deliberate government policies that encouraged the growing of rice and wheat above all else, every farmer in Punjab will tell you that rice is not native to the region and is an immense water guzzler and knows they have to switch away from it. At the time when the country was dependent on international aid and imports to meet basic food requirements this made sense, but now with significant over production of rice especially in states like Telangana, the government doesn't have to maintain the same policies (MSP, free electricity, subsidised water, etc). Now when the farmers of Punjab want similar levels of support to shift away from grains to pulses and other less water and fertiliser consuming crops the governments are not willing to give them that and are still maintaining the old system, as it stands now farming of these is not as profitable for the Punjabi farmer as farming of grains. MSP regime has to be extended by government for the crops they want them to switch to and slowly withdraw them for rice and wheat in Punjab while ensuring there's enough inventory in the FCI to maintain the PDS.
It wouldn't be a problem if the Central Government does less blabbering and takes more action. If they gave MSP's on alternative crops no one in Punjab will grow Paddy. Its not even a part of our diet FFS. How about you leave your room for once and touch some grass? Stop consuming the the propaganda that's being mouth fed to you by the government and use your brain for once.
Nepal should control its vast water resources and not allow India to have any of it since its India who restricted Nepal trade route and killed their factories. Hence crippling their economy. #BackOffIndia #DhotiOut
@@Bialy_1 imagine quoting the most cringe politician of the 20th century.
As an Indian who is neutral about Pakistan, this video was educative. This should be a wake up call for India too. Contrary to what most people think, the farming methods here are not that different. Stubble burning in Punjab causes Delhi to become a gas chamber every year. Sometimes, a neutral viewpoint is necessary to see things in the correct perspective and take remedial action wherever necessary.
I wonder if those rice stalks could ve used as growing medium for mushrooms the same way as rice hulls.
I have seen documentary on Al Jazeera about Indian Punjab having same issue Whole South Asia Should take action and save its Water plus land
As an Indian who lost a relative to Pakistani Terrorists, I'll say "let them die".
@@rohanshende4338 Sir , my deepest apologies to you and your family over the loss. The video was about groundwater usage, not the political landscape. Indian Punjabi farmers are not exactly letting go of age old practices and end up wasting a lot of water. Israel has barely land that’s suitable for cultivation, and yet their methods are far superior than ours. The BIMARU belt will continue to pop out too many children that even the best agricultural methods of the world cannot sustain.
Indian punjab will become the poorest state in india soon... as its a feudal state with religious sikh extremissm unable to move forward with the science and trend while youth escaping the province.
Same problem on the Indian side of Punjab, Decades of subsidized electricity, excessive ground water exploitation, lack of crop rotation, is rendering one of the most productive agricultural land barren and has drowned the state in debt.
Dont tell this to any sikh punjabi's.... they are too stupid to understand this and may just curse you calling you as a Modi bhakt/agent trying to change punjabi way of life... 🤷♂️.. !!..
All because of your govt subsidized green revolution
I really would like a video about Brazil state oil company, Petrobrás. A view from someone outside the country.
I will give a insider view(from my teacher) Petrobras got the short end of the stick after they opened the market in the 90's, the outside companies headhunted petrobras technical team (still understaffed to this day) and got the presal know how with them. Now we have a very strange situation, petrobras don't really want or can drill more in the camps since it will reduce the price of the oil and to drill they need more people that they don't have or want to hire to not drill to extract more oil. Bear in mind that the presal is under 3000m of water and a thick layer of salt that is very hard to drill because salt is plastic and grabs the drill bits.
oh my god I was just thinking of the Pakistan water crisis how did you know I was waiting for this
You Pakistani?
Also the irony of Flooding Monsoons being the only source of water, yet drought plauging the land most of the year sucks. The only "Solution" would be extreme water processing and groung well injection of flood water, and that would be challenging and expensive. Basically do a more extreme version of Arizona USA water management strategy.
@@viewer-of-content because the US system in Arizona has worked so well. /s
The people in Arizona have the strange ability to have irrigation canals deliver a constant supply of water that creates the illusion of permanent abundance while being able to ignore the fact that the water travels over 200 miles through the desert before reaching where it is used.
And then the water is used to grown water intensive crops like cotton and alfalfa and exported to be used in the deserts in the middle east where it makes sense for them to import from Arizona instead of wasting their valuable and limited water resources.
@@hewhohasnoidentity4377 Arizona and Nevada actually have some of the best water management in the world, (Israel is good too.) The issue is with declining rainfall/snowfall, and surrounded by some bad actors, it becomes hard to retain adequate water supplies. California and Utah alone take more than 100% of the Colorado river's water supply, and have horribly inefficient Agricultural use. The situation is basically like Tajikistan /Uzbekistan/Turkmenistan /Kazakhstan and the Aral Sea Basin except: that Nevada and Arizona use water more responsibly, and their is less water loss in the mostly waterproof canals off of the Colorado River than in the Aral Sea Basin. Both Regions need drastic Water use reform And Evaporative prevention coverage of the canals. But a lot Can be Learned From responsible desert water usage entities like Nevada, Arizona, and Israel.
Truly thorough and well informed video, its as if you have a resident level information about the regions you present video essays about, nice writing team.
Pakistan has no time to think on useless topics like depleting ground water, we are busy finding who will be new Army Chief :)
Feelsbadman
enough water from floods, no time soon they will be depleted
This is why India will conquer Pakistan in the future
😂😂
& Kashmir
I really beleive asianometry is one of the few channels that portray a objective reality, the bad , the good and the neutral of the world.
They are presenting their opinion as much as anybody else does, they just do so in a well researched and informative manner.
As a Pakistani, I am telling you that nothing is going to change but we'll just delve into much deeper problems. The People are concerned about Political Aims rather than the benefits of the country.
I would like to ask you a question if you don't mind..... Do most Pakistani people support the current government? And also is there freedom of speech in order to criticize the current government publicly? Pakistan has so many people living within it's borders and I wish it the best future...
@@thomaslove6494 Sure why not.
1- The situation is quite complicated. Most of the people from KPK, Baluchistan, Punjab and Sindh hate the current Government. Some do it because of being Pro-PTI and Anti-PDM, while some hate the Government for their absolutely foolish steps and dynastic approach to politics.
Secondly, one can criticize the Government and get away with it, however, since it's Pakistan, and Politicians don't have the balls to accept criticism against them, they simply either arrest the other person or make them disappear. The most dangerous case is that of the army. Say anything against it, criticize it for ruining the country, and you'll be harassed, threats will be given and ultimately, you'll be taken away by them.
@@zion-istslayer respect you for telling the truth
Also to note, dry ground absorbs water far slower than wet ground, so that could be contributing to the severity of floods as well.
It's only a problem if you're poor and the poor have no power, so their system of wealth extraction is working as intended.
You mean 99.99% of the peoplem
@@philoslother4602 tons of people in Pakistan get water from rivers too, most of the population is on the Indus and its tributaries. 90% of their food is supplied from farms irrigated with water from the Indus so even when people don't live near the river they're still getting supplied indirectly by the river.
You are a socialist.
@@philoslother4602 more like 95 96 percent its a big big club between army government workers rich feudal landlords etc. many layers with non muslims at the lowest.
@@Myanmartiger921 .muslim , non Muslim, the bourgeoisie dont give a toss...
This makes me think of regenerative agriculture. Permaculture, agroforestry, that sort of thing.
And you should think about the problem... and it seems to be unsustainable population growth.
@@Bialy_1
As well as the uncontrolled pollution of ground and surface water
That's what Pakistan needs.
Highly appreciate the effort you have put in putting this together.
8:50 And due to seepage, which also raises the water table. Many canals are not lined with cement.
16:00 Recently in the previous 5 years the government subsidised installation of drip systems
Well done (as usual). Thank you for all the work and then sharing. Heavy use of ground water is also an issue in certain parts of USA, with one of several possible examples being the San Joaquin Valley
You missed a very important detail. In Punjab it is normal for a home to pump ground water to the water tank. Specially cities near the rivers. We also have a what we call here "bore" in our home and we just use that instead of the city water supply.
The "bore" is a common disease amongst people in Karachi as well. But you can't blame them because otherwise they'd have no water at all.
Bro, Exactly same problems here in india just across the border. It's time for both the government to come up with sustainable solutions so that it doesn't damage the water table at the same time doesn't effect the yields either.
As a Pakistani I can confirm that all the information you gave is Correct.
An amazing thing is, while being the 8th largest food producing country, we are unable to secure our food security
You don't get fertilizer that why
A low water table makes an area more prone to flooding when a sudden influx of ground water occurs. Thirsty ground is less able to soak up water because it becomes hard and impacted, with low pore size at the surface.
Aussies always watching our water supplys artisian basin Bore water especially .
they went and closed all unused bores also helped to stop Canetoads/ferals spreading across Qld to wa etc
success small natural springs apeared 10 years L8tr .
Good work and presentation! Lots of details and factual information. Excellent pictures and narration.
Well researched video as always. It is always impressive how deep you go into the subjects you choose. I have a suggestion though or more of a request. Can you do a video on the FCFA currency ? It being the last colonial currency there are various opinions on it. Most are negative but the currency also has some benefits.
As a Pakistani, I never expected Asianometery to cover Pakistan, let alone ground water.
There will probably be a "how Pakistan got the bomb" video
Water pumped for irrigation from the Ogallala Aquifer is the principal driver of the region's mostly agricultural-based economy (market value $35 billion) Unfortunately, intensive irrigated agriculture is draining the aquifer much faster than rainfall can replenish it.Jul 29, 2021 USDA
Yeah, most places in the world will need to figure out where to get water within the next 20 years.
Farmers in the central valley in California are doing the same thing.
I am learning far too many interesting things on this channel. Thanks Jon!
Hi. I am Brazilian in here. I think that the same problem of land mismanagement happens ALL AROUND THE GLOBE.
In here, it is sugarcane plantations (some plantations uses water from the Guarani aquifer) that end up fueling peoples CARS!! I think it is very stupid. Sugar some places get so dry at some months in a year, it have to suck a lots of water from it and just pump out, without greens vegetations that can replenish the ground water, the farmers dig deeper wells and the cracking starts all around some rural houses...
Even in "ribeirão preto" in São Paulo have shown problems of terrain... the "grace mission" from Nasa already pointed out lots of satellite images from all around the globe with risk of going out of water...
Great video. The underpricing of environmental assets is a big problem all around. Current proposed Cap and trade policies would do nothing to address groundwater or soil depletion. There has to be a way to price all ecological assets, both for their current value and future value.
We should be sequestering as much ground water as possible, given the droughts we will be facing in the future. My ideal scenario would be to move beyond pricing, and set hard quotas, but that smells too much like socialism to some people.
Not even socialism. That's the system many communists used before the Chinese moved to the capped cost model.
Hard quotas are one of the biggest causes for the water shortage in the US southwest. Farmers were given quotas and future amounts were based on previous amounts actually used. This created a need to use the same amount of water each year regardless of if the land was being used for a water intensive crop, a drought tolerant crop or even letting the land rest for a season. A large farm that rotates cotton, potatoes and rest had no choice but to keep water usage steady at a level higher than what is needed for the cotton so the water will be available to them in the future.
Quotas are not the solution. Then again most large scale challenges can not be solved by the first thought upon learning of the issue. It is not as if in the history of civilization nobody had thought of water quotas.
@@hewhohasnoidentity4377 populists tend to always think there's an easy solution everyone else overlooks, usually because they're corrupt or greedy, and all we need is this one simple thing to solve the problem. Reading up on Soviet history and you'll see tons of examples of that reasoning: farms aren't producing enough due to corrupt farmers so they collectivize the farms, which backfires since people resented having to work the government farms and give the government all their food so they work less on government farms so they can cultivate their own farms on the side. Government decides to tax more to compensate for this but ignores the fact they can't really predict or even measure how much food is being produced across the country since they put people with little to no famring experience in charge of farms. Then they decide to encourage more grain harvests by taxing fruit orchards which were planted mainly for the wealthy so people cut down their trees and people get sick since now instead of a balanced diet they're living off of grain and little else. Then they tried to fix that issue by taxing cattle which would be redistributed among the population so everyone slaughters their cattle before the tax resulting in less meat and dairy and less livestock to pull plows. Later they tried to boost corn harvest by land reform and gave people farms to work in areas previously un cultivated since hey more land means more food, but they ignored the fact there was a reason the land hasn't been cultivated before and the farms underperformed and tons of people starved. Then they started draining the Aral seas tributaries to start irrigating some of that new farm land which caused soil salinity to get way worse and caused the sea to be completely drained.
@@hewhohasnoidentity4377 *"given quotas and future amounts were based on previous amounts actually used."*
That's an issue with _how_ quotas are implemented, not with quotas themselves. Soviet Russia had the same issue.
There should be zero quotas. Instead, simply price the water correctly and it will be used sensibly. Quotas always causes some people to have accidentally too big quota and some other with too little. This is because nobody knows the future perfectly so nobody can set correct quotas either. And any decision power you give to some government workers about the quotas, the more corruption you will get in the long run.
It's better to have zero decision power about quotas and simply increase the price of the clean water: do not give free or cheap electricity for pumping the water, set extra penalties for continuing the water once the watertable height is already too deep. That will allows those that absolutely need the water to still pump it and the people to whom it would be *easiest* to keep pumping more water, it will give more *incentive* to come up with a better implementation.
Your conclusion makes me so glad somebody out there can analyse this situation
Thank you so much for covering this. We have so many problems in Pakistan and there is no awareness about these issues. Please do more videos on Pakistan and the region as it is not given much attention.
Same as in India but even worse have a look at water table in Punjab region in India
good observation
Hindus are stealing Punjab’s water
Bruh madrassa chap attack iit hindu like always
@H J no Punjab is not an exception it is a big issue throughout Northern and Central India, ground water supplies like 90% of irrigation in the indo-gangetic basin so UP, Haryana, Bihar, Chattisgarh, MP, Rajasthan, etc are not doing any better. Almost every major city too has groundwater issues, and in the south groundwater exploitation is a big issue in TN too.
California and many other US states love to overuse groundwater to, idiotic behavior is a widespread problem unfortunately. Denmark and Israel might inspire them and others to use less per citizens and recycle more water, Israel irrigation system is in a similar climate, drip irrigation I think one is called. It can be google
Hello @Asianometry can you kindly provide the reference links in the description! Regards.
On paper I wonder if the annual rainfall looks normal. If it all falls at once, you get floods, which means it's not going into the aquifers, and 'normal' rainfall could end up in drought!
Can't they dig holes and fill them with gravel so that the rainwater go straight to the aquifer?
Recently after small earthquake taste of water has changed in Pakistan south east regions , still a very good video I can relate coz Im Pakistani.
AS a pakistani thank you for talking about my country!!
Small correction: Borlaugs approach was based on synthetic fertiliser, chemical pest and disease management and hybrids - not GMO.
So no one is directly paying for the actual price of water and the system is inefficient. What a surprise, NOT.
Very interesting to learn about groundwater. One question: I read somewhere that Nestle is bottleing water in Pakistan in a big way. The article argued that this is also hurting the water supply in the region. Is there anything in this claim?
Compared to agricultural use, absolutely infinitismal water use for bottled water, plus the Nestle bottled water isn't contaminated by shit so disease free also!
@@andrewallen9993 Thanks. That's not unimportant. I dont know how developed the water utilities in Pakistan are. As a European one is somewhat accustomed to high quality drinking water from the tap.
I can speak for nestle water usage here in Michigan as I put in a lot of effort to hate them properly.
Turns out, all bottled water from all companies in Michigan, of which nestle is not the biggest, only works out to 0.02% of all ground water extraction. It’s literally a drop in the bucket.
Michigan is probably the best place in the world for a water bottling plant. Nestle situated their plant in a place suffering from too much groundwater.
Also, nestle has since sold this bottling plant in Michigan.
@@jacuzzibusguy Thank you.
@@bastiangugu4083 We also get water in the taps here in Rawalpindi, Pakistan. (4th largest city of Pakistan) but still we prefer not to drink it. We just use it for other purposes.
You either install a water filter inside your home ( not super expensive) or get water from a nearby filtration plant. (Typically installed by govt)
Thanks for the video Jon 👍👍
2 month old comment on a 2 hour old video? 🤔
@@tomblaise Probably Patreon early access
Hol up
This issue, especially when hearing cotton and excessive water usage, reminds me of extinction of once 4th largest lake on Earth. That lake called Aral Sea, became Central Asian Chernobyl level of ecological catastrophe.
Same wise in Indian Panjab too where pumping out ground water led to draining of 3 ground 💦water layers... This is due to no revision of indus water treaty and deliberate sharing of riparian waters to non riparian provinces on behalf of no clear water sharing treaty.... Whether pakistani panjab Or indian panjab, both hv been bereft of their only natural resource of water for agriculture and daily uses....
I think Bangladesh shares many of these groundwater and land reform issue. But all Bangladeshi Rivers originates in India which makes it the issue complicated. I wish u'll make a video on this issue in Bangladesh. For the basics of this region, u can start with Professor Willem van Schendel.
And India gets more than 70% of its water from Nepal which Nepalese should control to control India and demand an unrestricted trade route. India is an evil nation for not allowing Nepal to trade freely. Once the Indian influence is removed from Nepal, Indian dhotis will get the pay back. I smell genocide against Indian origin dhotis residing illegally in Nepal soon if Indians don't get their shit together. #BackOffIndia #DhotiOut
Our trajectory also is on a similar path. In 1951 ours was 44 million people while as of 2022 we have quadrupled to 168 million.
although maybe some people crossed over to India so our bar was lower compared to our natural capacity...
@@zil1832 Yup! Those are illegal Bangladeshi immigrants.
Eh, isn't India a bit more friendly towards Bangladesh as compared to Pakistan?
It all comes down to education. Without properly educated farmers and well trained bureaucrats, no modern framing is possible nowadays. See Japan and South Korea farming. They suffered same poor fate of frequent flooding or draught like Southeastern farmers. But they and their gov't overcome many difficulties with long term irrigation projects and water usage plans. So they enjoy stable farming and lives much better off than SE farmers now.
Clean water - what comes down the river is questionable.
Perma scape ( lots of little ponds) might solve this but as usual we just keep on cutting down trees.
Just wait until they water their fields like California. ( not a good thing)
Pakistan has too many people, more than it can care for, and their feeding them is unsustainable.
14:10 Well, this data suggests Pakistan is still far from "unsustainable level" even with this poor efficiency there are no famines.
You are claiming a country where the majority of the population is directly dependent on the agriculture industry for income even though it is vastly inefficient in both water and land productivity has too many people for the land to provide for the people? I would suggest watching the video again.
@@MrGilang100 You can't base the risk of famine on year to year data. A country ideally should have food that lasts them 2 years, not a few months or a year. Most countries in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa import a large percentage of their food, so they're always at risk of famine. Between the war in Ukraine, the droughts in Latin America, and the floods in Pakistan, 2022 and 2023 represent the biggest risk of global famine in decades.
@@realtalk6195 In pre-globalization world, this is true, but, we are now globalized. A "food stock" metric is robust, but didn't tell the whole picture since we don't mainly grow staple crops right now. By that metrics Japan is on severe threats of Famine since their foods are disproportionately come from imports.
@@realtalk6195 Pakistan produces it's own food though which last well over to the next season
It's fascinating how frequently you use "pivot words", doubled, trippled, ground water, salinity, 1912 Provinces Of India, Indus Water Sharing Treaty of 1960, largest agricultural canal system in the world, British East India Company, Soldiery and Local Levies, PLATTE River Basin, Colorado River Sewage Intake, ....
Milk time.
A tale of inviting in the engineers and the 'unforeseen results' double and re-double. Endless chasing new engineering projects to resolve them. It's like a protection racket.
The straightforward answer is *Regenerative Agriculture (RA):* A complete rebuttal of the Green Revolution which attempted to industrialise (engineer) the process of making food and renewable products.
The key elements of RA are: no mechanical disturbance of the soil; the development of an ever replaced humus layer (no bare soil); always have the growing area covered by something growing (cover crops); animal impact (eating the cover crop on rotation) --- to make soil (using earthworms, bacteria, fungi, arthropods) whose principal function is trap and hold rain water to absorb flood potential and deflect droughts. Low stress, low cost farming and yields are more than comparable with composting and foliar spray extracts because the crop is nutritionally richer. ps: Agronomists are also not advised unless they are fully-versed in RA. RA began in the 50's (Andre Voisin), biggest leap forward (P A Yeomans), and now practised on every continent.
Salting the earth is an expression from Sermão do Santo António aos Peixes and means preaching basically xD
Something I never got is that Pakistan has nuclear weapons, and a large quantity of coast along the Arabian Sea, and yet, at no point, did investments in nuclear power and water desalination happen at all in the past 70 years. In a country that so heavily relies upon a single river with a lot of desert and arid land in the center and south
Little correction : There were no Pakistanis or Muslims here 2500 year ago. That were Indians or Indus Valley Civilization. Muslims invaders came from Persia just few hundred years ago
Pak govt should replace canals flood water irrigation system with drip irrigation system . Make a well connected drip irrigation system with small dams , concrete ponds and pvc pipes .
True, waters from canal evaporate quickly especially in dry season. Drip irrigation save water
Subsidizing a base good is a common trap for developing economies, it only leads to waste and corruption.
Even in india using lot of water to farm rice 🍚, specially my state city Punjab we are spending lot of water 💧 which comes from underground, even thou we don't eat rice but our farmers farming rice in huge qnty
Wow, I very much appreciate the technical videos but this geo-pol content is just as interesting! These topics definitely apply across regions.
that's great well rounded and ended with a note of sympathy
They need more damns. Couple that with proper pricing, and removing well subsidies, and problem is solved. It doesn't make sense to burn oil to get water because all water came from a higher location at one point. If you have to lift water too high at many points it means you are missing on some other water logistics or your economic incentives are wrong. Energy = Water in more ways than people realize. But if the water gets so low that you are doing a lot of pumping then you let high energy become low energy somewhere without tapping the value, and then are using energy to recover it. It's bad energy management and water management because the two are the same thing because its more reasonable than people realize to describe energy infrastructure and water infrastructure as the same pool.
India also uses for sugarcane & basmati growth.
At 9.04 of the video, what is meant by 900 days and 500 days when in an year, there are 365 days only??
Thank you so much for bringing this issue to the forefront.
We have a similar situation in India as well.
Mostly in the state of Punjab.
@@fretted4life south India, Gujarat and Maharashtra is also facing same problem
@@rohanpawar2166 South India is too vague be specific, I thought Maharashtra had a groundwater recharge programme in drought hit areas of Vidharba.
@@fretted4life except Kerala and coastal areas interior of south india use ground water for irrigation
Not really ,over 90% of India saw groundwater level increase last decade thanks to good monsoons last 4 years
Thank you and Much Love from the Philippines.
Great idea that sprinkle water amazes me.
Oh, i thought this was about the heavy metal band, Groundwater, my bad.
14:54 how are these numbers so different? Sunshine? Look at Egypt!
(Probably: Ancient Romans comment:”Duh!”)
Well informed and eye opener.
Very good video that highlights few issues.
Thank you so much for this detailed video on this critical topic. Greetings from Pakistan
Around 40 million 1950. Now 235 million. Worldometers info world-population.
This is what will happen with fusion energy. People will find ever more frivolous uses for cheap energy until it's all gone.
If groundwater is salty, why are they digging wells for irrigation.
I love how every non south asian says poonjab . Has a nice ring to it
Honestly it should be spelt as Panjab. Makes more sense. I thinks that's how it used to be spelt during the British Raj.
But then again, non-South Asians would then pronounce it as Pan-Jab. Which sounds worse.
@@greatwolf5372 break it up in half and that's how you pronounce it. "pun" + "jab". I'm not being a pronunciation police, I was just making an observation how everyone says poon. coz poon also means pussy
Hey are you Indian dhoti?
@@machomanrichards1534 sure am
شاندار طور پر ا،
وسیع،
پرتعیش۔
Video Excellences from 🇵🇰
Thank you for your efforts.
It would be nice of you if you cover Africa's water, like the Great Man-Made River in Libya or the water scarcity in North Africa and the Sahel region or.
That would be in a separate channel - Asia? It's in the name.
@@CHMichael yes right
at 5:45.... aside from Rice, Pakistan also grows GANJA weed
No ganja weed is grow in Afghanistan and and in Pakistan Afghanistan border area
Dear asianometry, can you make a program on green revolution, or the third agricultural revolution? It is very little known..
Really informative episode!
Land distribution was totally unfair many people don’t have even on inch and others have thousands of kilo meters
Finding the money to do all this is a hard ask.... In a country where the people contributing 20% of GDP aren't contributing at all to taxes ...
Seriously?
Ousted PM Imran khan vowed to fix that and he was successful in increasing tax revenues.
You are the tap to the valuable information basin ;-)
Early comment & thumbs up minutes from upload, before I even fishished the runtime, to communicate to the algorithm I like this video and its topic.
Horizontal wells... Hmm🤔
Thank you for making this.
I've been researching groundwater exhaustion as a potential Black Swan event that causes the next global crisis.
I don't think it can be a black swan because a lot of people see it coming. By definition you can't prepare for a specific black swan event is something that nobody predicted nor expected, it's a surprise.
Black swan would be an asteroid hitting Earth near Iceland, causing global havoc - water scarcity? It's an issue well known to governments and companies like Nestle alike.
It's the general public that might not know the real water-predicament many societies will face in the near future, but that's not a Black Swan, just ignorance.
Is there any cheaper solution to overcome this problem?
only fantasies are cheap, not solutions
Yes avoid the problem until a solution shows it's self 😂
Regenerative agriculture
The overpopulation in Pakistan isn't the main cause but a symptom of Pakistan's underdevelopment and failure to industrialize and make use of its various resources. Pakistan would not have been overpopulated had it focused on development. Our path to progress really derailed following the assassination of Liaquat Ali Khan in '51, or maybe it was already doomed when Jinnah died in '48, or perhaps the real problems started when Bhutto implemented socialist policy that nationalized Pakistan's various industries in '72.
The army's interference with Pakistan's democracy is also to blame. Why do our military foundations and corporations get more funding than our farmers? Pakistan has more irrigated land than the EU, but agricultural efficiency is extremely low because of the lack of mechanization, the ungodly volumes of water used to irrigate and the soil-eroding intensive monoculture practices used nearly everywhere in Punjab and Sindh. Sustainable farming and river management should be the first step for Pakistan right now before anything else. Agro-business profits have the potential of being multiplied by the dozens if the government would step up and subsidize the people that feed us. Later on, those profits can be used to help drive industrialization.
That terrible idea that you wrote last focus in forest agriculture not modernisation in agriculture since traditional farming used in Pakistan the damage was less compared to India in Indiana we had a problem due to destruction of soil microbes caused by modernisation pesticides, clearing of topsoil leading to barrenland , the govt intervened and stopped the farming encouraged the forest farm it made sustainable to nature and human lives
Provided timbers of various trees,
Provided soil health naturallyetc main problem is modernisation in Pakistan it will be great in economic ally and socially don't have to depend in imports of fertilizer s, and fuels largely. Here in India we started to abandon to modern agriculture and started to adopt traditional farming encouraging with financial assistance by govt
Small part of land allocated for forest that provides ecosystem of lives
@@veerar8203 I agree that agroforestry is good, but I disagree with your comment overall because the main problems in Pakistani agriculture is a) the lack of machines b) the lack of quality seeds, and c) overuse of water. Modernization would actually solve all these problems.
By using machines, less people are needed to farm more crops. By getting quality seeds, we can get better yield and have pest-resistant crops so no need for pesticide. And by improving water efficiency, land can be farmed more economically.
As a guy on the toilet this was very relaxing
So they have to adopt water harvesting techniques used in e.g. India for a long time already to prevent the rainwater to run off unused.
BTW:
In former times people/children in Pakistan died because did not have access to clean water.
Then western countries helped to build wells - well, there is a problem; the groundwater contains a lot of Arsenic so that people now die from this.
Buying rice from Pakistan is also a bad idea for the same reason.
Im just anxious how economy of world is tilted, that when scales tilt to farmers quitting in enough quantities to endanger world food production.