The following gaps in information have been identified which need to be filled if proper water management and development in the Northern Areas to meet increasing human demands is to take place in coming years.

Mountain irrigation:

Although irrigation is essential for agriculture in the mountainous northern part of Pakistan, there is only scattered data on many aspects of this. For example,
What is the extent of kuhl-irrigated agricultural area in the Northern Areas
What are the needs of communities with regards to irrigation and water management, given that the population is increasing and some agricultural land is inevitably been given over to settlement.

Unless there is data on the amount of agricultural land under the kuhls, it is not possible to accurately determine actual crop water requirements of the region for future planning.

There is some literature and research on the types of irrigation systems in the area, especially it has been done by the AKRSP, WSHHSP and WASEP and some outside researchers in recent years. There is also some data on types and numbers of constructed irrigation systems, again by the same sources as above. But there is little information on how these systems are performing and what problems, managerial or engineering, they are encountering in their operational phases.

Similarly, although river flow data is available from many places in the Northern Areas, there is no information about the quantity of water use there because water is abstracted for human consumption before it reaches the main rivers.

There are also no data on the extent of losses from irrigation channels or kuhls. In this part of the country estimates run up to 70% loss because of terrain, high infiltration rates and so on. Such information is necessary for proper water management in the future.

Also there needs to be work done on how and where more irrigation is needed to sustain cultivation or bring additional area under cultivation. One of the bigger constraints on increasing cultivable land to meet growing population needs is the shortfall in irrigation systems. So work has to be done to identify such shortfalls and remedy the situation.

Trees as cash crops

Many cash crops can be grown in the area which can supplement farmers’ income. Although crops such as potatoes, tomatoes and some fruit are grown as cash crops in parts of the Northern Areas there is a lot more potential for this which has not been tapped yet. Therefore the planting of fruit trees and constraints on them need more attention and can be emphasized in the NACP program phase.

Hydel Projects

If deforestation has to be reduced in the Northern Areas then people need to be provided with alternative energy sources. For this hydro-power generation to produce electricity is the key. In some regions there are such schemes but in other regions, like Bulashbar, there are few and the needs of the inhabitants are not being met properly. Even where electricity is being provided, its supply is unreliable. In such circumstances, people are forced to turn to forest trees for fuel. Therefore this aspect of forest management could be included in the NACP program phase whereby WWF could identify such needs in its selected sites and work with the relevant authorities to improve the situation there.

Water quality

There needs to be greater research into the extent of water contamination both in rural and urban areas. Although measurements have been made in recent years by agencies like WSHHSP and WASEP on fecal contamination of rural water supplies, there is not nearly enough data in this regard. There is also a need to systematically identify sources of contamination, especially sources of effluent in urban areas and their effects on water quality. Silt loads in rivers and streams also need to be researched quantitatively. All these issues are relevant to proper water management schemes.

Wetlands

There is a great need to catalog and survey the wetlands of the Northern Areas because almost no detailed research has been done in this field. A few preliminary surveys of lakes have been done by WWF-Pakistan. But there is no research on other types of wetlands in the region such as peatlands. There needs to be an inventory of wetlands, complete with detailed baseline data, and some of them should be selected for designation as Ramsar sites.

There also needs to be a clarification about what a wetland is, and whether lakes themselves constitute wetlands. This is important because wetlands are transitional zones between aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems and lakes themselves constitute aquatic systems. So the definition of a wetland has to be clear when selecting sites for data collection.

Climate change

Although this is discussed in the next chapter, it is essential to state here also that the implications of climate change for the water resources, forests and flora and fauna of the Northern Areas, and indeed of the country as a whole, must be studied in greater detail and with consistency since this change is predicted to adversely affect many human activities in the region over the next twenty years.