Urbanisation putting strain on groundwater in Peshawar

PESHAWAR: The provincial capital would face an acute water shortage and urban flooding in the future due to the consistent urbanisation and depletion of the groundwater, researchers said.

Researchers of the University of Peshawar Attaullah Khan, Attaur Rahman, Samiullah and Muhammad Ali have published a research paper titled “Impact on the Ground Water Depletion in Peshawar”.

The research said that groundwater was the sole source of water supply to Peshawar. It stated that the district had more than 1,400 public tube-wells with a total discharge of 8 million gallons/hour. However, public tube-wells are not the only source of freshwater supply but private tube-wells, hand pumps and dug wells are also being used.

The demand for freshwater increased from 56 million liters/day to over 213 million liters/day from 1981 to 2017. The projected demand of fresh water of the citizens in 2030 will rise to 310 ml/d.

During the same period, the area under the built-up area has increased from 3.70 percent of the total geographical area to 16.27 percent and reduced the infiltration rate by 4 percent. The built-up area in Peshawar has increased to 20,451.39 ha (16.27 percent) in 2014 from 4,635 ha (3.7 percent) in 1981, marking an overall growth of 1,5816.39 ha (340 percent). With the same trend the projected increase for the year 2030 might be 22 percent.

The increase in impermeable surfaces has depleted groundwater recharging rate. The recharge rate from precipitation has reduced to 91.35 mm/year in 2014 from 108.75 mm/year in 1981. The study found situation quite alarming in the old city due to the falling of water table and drying up of tube-wells. In some areas, the water table has lowered by more than 16 metres. One of the authors of the paper, Dr Attaur Rahman, who is chairman of the Department of Geography, told this scribe that the solution to the problem was to stop the city’s expansion. “Land zoning and land use regulation could address the problem,” he added.

These regulations should focus on demolishing the old infrastructure and replacing it with multi-storey buildings to protect the forested and agricultural land as implemented by Japan. He said that urbanisation would be one of the major sources of urban flooding in Peshawar in future.