Punjab’s traditional irrigation system delivers water from canals and distributaries to farms through an extensive network of open watercourses. Of the province’s 58,000-plus primary watercourses, about 7,000 remain completely unlined, while the other 51,000 have been only partially lined. In most of these, lining covers just 30 per cent of their length, with the remaining sections still earthen (kachha khals).

The situation is even more concerning within farmers’ fields. There, the combined length of internal watercourses is more than three times that of the primary network, yet almost all of them are unlined. This widespread reliance on earthen watercourses (kachha khals) is compounded by Pakistan’s limited adoption of High-Efficiency Irrigation Systems (HEIS) — drip, sprinkler, centre-pivot, and rain-gun — on farms.

In Pakistan, HEIS covers less than 1pc of the total irrigated area, compared with 19.2pc in India, 17pc in China, 24pc in Iran and 38pc in Turkey, according to the International Commission on Irrigation and Drainage Report (2023–24). The country therefore remains heavily dependent on an open-channel conveyance system based largely on earthen watercourses. This presents two major structural challenges for Punjab’s agriculture: high conveyance losses and substantial wastage of cultivable land.

First, in the past, various reports estimated that conveyance losses in unlined watercourses — from seepage, evaporation, weed transpiration and leakage along the banks — could reach up to 50pc. The losses may be even higher today, as farmers no longer desilt watercourses and remove weeds and debris as regularly as they did a decade ago.

In Pakistan, HEIS covers less than 1pc of the total irrigated area, compared with 19.2pc in India

Manual cleaning of earthen watercourses is physically very demanding and relies largely on basic hand tools, while mechanical equipment remains largely unavailable. Changing rural lifestyles, the declining physical capacity of rural workers compared with the past — partly due to worsening poverty — and extreme summer heat have further contributed to neglected maintenance.

These losses are particularly concerning as Pakistan has become a water-scarce country, with per capita water availability falling below 1,000 cubic meters. Due to high conveyance losses, tail-end farmers often receive only a fraction of their canal water share. Consequently, their growing reliance on groundwater has contributed to falling water tables and rising pumping costs. All this is undermining the economic viability of farming for tail-end users.

The second major issue is the substantial loss of cultivable land. Under the standards followed by the Revenue Department and Irrigation Departments, watercourses are generally allocated a width of 16 feet, rendering around 12–13 marlas of land per acre uncultivable — equivalent to nearly 8pc of an acre. However, farmers generally maintain narrower watercourses, typically 6–7 feet wide, on their farms.

Even these narrower channels occupy a substantial share of cultivable land, a burden that is further aggravated by Punjab’s highly fragmented farming system. According to the 7th Agricultural Census 2024, Punjab’s average farm size is only about 6.1 acres, meaning that, on average, a primary or secondary watercourse is likely to pass through nearly every second acre.

One estimate suggests that open watercourses occupy 2.0–2.5pc of the province’s 29.64 million acres of cultivated land. The actual loss may be even greater, as seepage from earthen watercourses can cause over-irrigation in adjacent fields, damaging crops along the watercourse banks.

At a time when population growth is intensifying pressure on agricultural land, losing such a large area to traditional watercourses represents a significant yet largely overlooked structural inefficiency. Moreover, watercourses passing through neighbouring farms frequently create legal and operational disputes amongst farmers. Thousands of such cases are pending in courts.

To address these challenges, Indian Punjab has, in recent years, extensively promoted an underground pipeline system to replace open earthen watercourses. The approach uses pipes made of polyvinyl chloride, high-density polyethylene, or reinforced cement concrete to convey water efficiently from canals or tubewells to agricultural fields.

The government offers financial subsidies to encourage farmer groups and individual farmers to adopt an underground pipeline system. To date, Indian Punjab has laid tens of thousands of kilometres of such pipelines, with some extending up to 8km. This has enabled canal water to reach far-flung areas that previously had little or no access to the canal irrigation network.

Beyond significant water savings, this pipeline system frees up valuable land for crop cultivation. Moreover, it reduces the time and energy required to deliver water due to lower friction losses, while significantly reducing the labour required to irrigate fields and maintain watercourses.

Some may argue that the underground pipeline system is too expensive for Pakistan. In reality, even without factoring in the benefits of additional water savings and land recovery, its cost is comparable to — and in some cases lower than — the cost of lining earthen watercourses. The option, therefore, merits serious consideration.

With a rapidly growing population, mounting food-security risks, declining per capita water availability and depleting groundwater reserves, Punjab — the backbone of the country’s agricultural system — must modernise its inefficient open-channel conveyance system, which relies heavily on earthen watercourses.

As many countries have already adopted underground pipelines to reduce water conveyance losses, the province should at least launch pilot projects to assess the technical and economic viability of the approach. If proven successful, it could be scaled up to strengthen Pakistan’s long-term water and food security.

Chaudhary Mohammad Ashraff is a former Director General (On-Farm Water Management) of the Punjab Agriculture Department. Khalid Wattoo is a development professional and a farmer.

Published in Dawn, The Business and Finance Weekly, August 24th, 2026