IUCN Balochistan Programme Water Programme Document Series

NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL RECHARGE TECHNIQUES FOR BALOCHISTAN

Dr Abdul Majeed1

1. PREAMBLE
Groundwater recharge is an environmentally compatible process of restoring some components
of natural water cycle that have been upset as a result of human interventions or natural
disasters. In recent years there is a growing interest in natural and artificial groundwater
recharge in view of greater and unsustainable exploitation and use of groundwater for agricultural
and domestic purposes. The continued exploitation of groundwater results in declining water
table.
In Balochistan, because of extreme aridity and dearth of perennial sources of surface water,
groundwater has been considered the only dependable source of water to meet the growing
needs. Historically, it has been extracted from dug wells, Karezes, and springs. However, the
rural electrification program coupled with improved communication network and favorable prices
of agriculture and horticulture produce have resulted in large scale drilling of tubewells. This
indiscriminant drilling of tubewells ahs played a key role in and unprecedented groundwater
depletion
In order to manage and regulate the use of groundwater, the Government of Balochistan on
March 22, 1978 promulgated “The Balochistan Ground Water Rights Administration Ordinance”.
Under this Ordinance, Provincial Water Board and District water Committee are established to
check and control tubewell drilling. But due to political interference, tribal system, and lack of
commitment from the government agencies to enforce authority, these measures have not
produced the desired results. Due to continued overdraft, groundwater mining is reported to
cause depletion at rates up to 3 meters/annum with serious consequences calling for exhaustive
efforts to increase recharge.
This document describes various techniques to boost natural recharge along with discussions on
the applicability of each technique in the Balochistan environment and physical conditions.

2. WHY RECHARGE?
Recharge to groundwater is necessary for the following reasons:
Ø Recover lost water due to overexploitation
Ø Improve groundwater quality, which might have deteriorated
Ø Restore original aquifer conditions following excessive extraction from aquifer
Ø Alter groundwater flow direction in order to protect against unsuitable source pollution
Ø Reduce cost of surface storage reservoir where possible
Ø Eliminate evaporation losses in surface water reservoirs
Ø Reduce chances of surface contamination
Ø Act as alternate for surface storage sites in urban areas and croplands.

1
Head, Water Programme, IUCN Balochistan Programme Office, Quetta
 Natural & Artificial Recharge Techniques for Balochistan
3. FACTORS INFLUENCING RECHARGE
Ø Geology, hydrogeology and geo-hydrochemistry of the natural and artificial recharging sites
Ø Physiography, gradients, vegetation cover, type of soil, gravels and loose sediments that
control the natural runoff during heavy rains and melting snows.
Ø Secondary porosity of consolidated sediments and rocks – fractures and joints.

4. NATURAL RECHARGE TECHNIQUES

In Balochistan, precipitation is the main source of natural recharge of groundwater, which occurs
both as consolidated and unconsolidated aquifers in all the basins. It is generally found trapped
in the alluvial fans and piedmont plains. Generally the springs and karezes in Balochistan receive
water from aquifers fed directly from the beds of joining streams whose catchments are in the
mountains. These streams are mostly non-perennial and water passes through them in the form
of flash floods after rainfall. Depending on local conditions, the duration of such floods varies
from a few hours to a few days. The natural recharge of groundwater is a safe, inexpensive, and
reliable technique to improve the quality of water. Surface water penetrates into the subsoil
where a hydraulic gradient is present and fills up the pores in the aquifer. The flow in springs and
karezes is a response of natural recharge, made possible by precipitation, snowmelt, and flood
flows, and the infiltration levels of the alluvial sediments. The infiltration rate of different soils
types is given in Table 1.

TABLE-1: textural classification and infiltration rate of different lands

Nature Texture Infiltration Infiltration Rate

Capacity (mm/hr)
Very Heavy Dense clay Very slow 1
Heavy Clay, silty clay, sandy clay Slow 1 to 5
Moderately heavy Silty clay loam, clay loam, Moderately slow 5 to 20
sandy clay loam
Medium Silt loam, loam, Moderate 20 to 65
Very fine sandy loam
Moderately light Sandy loam, Moderately rapid 65 to 130
Fine sandy loam
Light Loamy fine sand, Rapid 130 to 250
loamy sand
Very light Sand, coarse sand, Very rapid 250 and above
very fine gravel

4.1 Organic Mulching

Organic materials i.e. animal and poultry manure, human excretions, plant residues in soil act like
a sponge and improve the soil structure, increase pore spaces, which all increase water
percolation. In Balochistan most watersheds have been degraded by continued
woodcutting and overgrazing leaving little soil cover with the result that at most places
bare rocks have been exposed. This technique therefore finds little merit under the
prevalent conditions in Balochistan.

2
 Natural & Artificial Recharge Techniques for Balochistan
4.2 Watershed Management
Watershed conservation is the planting of appropriate plant species within the catchment of
rivers, streams and reservoirs to help generate recharge. It is the single most important
natural phenomenon for increasing/simulating recharge. The plantation reduces rate of
runoff by trapping and delaying the water with associated reduction in the level of silt
carried in the flood flow. The additional benefit of growing trees, shrubs, herbs and
grasses in the catchment is the enhancement of recharge to the groundwater aquifer by
increasing infiltration. The roots of plants open the soils and penetrate into the hard
layers of consolidated rocks and sub soils clayey hard pans to form new arteries and
channels for transmitting the rain and surface water into the underground reservoir. The
potential increase in groundwater recharge through watershed management may result in
a significant impact upon water resources conservation and improvement in Balochistan
in areas where there is sufficient soil cover still available for such activity.
Studies report that a storm of 80 mm rain falling on the vegetative cover catchment can produce
a lower peak flow than that from a 20 mm storm onto the catchment with no plantation. It
is also reported that watershed vegetation measures can add an average 33% more to
the groundwater recharge.
Table 2 provides some details of selected plant species that are considered suitable for
watershed management in various areas of Balochistan.

TABLE2: Selected native and exotic plant species for watershed management
Species Plant Characteristics Suitability for
(Latin name/ Local Balochistan
name)
Acacia nilotica Tree Roots can penetrate in cemented Highly suitable
(Kikar, Babul) pan. Prefers semiarid climate. for low rainfall
areas
Acacia tortilis Tree Native to extremely dry regions of Highly suitable
(Jangli Babul/Kikar) less than 100mm rainfall. for desert
Can survive temperatures over areas
50o C.
Casuarina Tree Grown on seacoasts. Heat loving Suitable for
equisetifolia lowland tree. Tolerates drought coastal areas
(Australian pine, Jangli for 6-8 months
saru)
Eucalyptus Tree Grown extensively in plains and Not suitable
camaldulensis hilly areas under semiarid climate. due to high
(Suphaida) Water loving plant but can transpiration
tolerate dry season up to 7 rates
months
Prosopis cineraria Tree Highly drought tolerant plant. Highly suitable
(Jandi) Grows well over a temperature for valley floors
range of –6 to 500 C. Its taproots in upland areas
can penetrate deep into the soil with good soil
as long as 55-meter depth. cover
Prosopis juliflora Tree Tolerates temperatures between Highly suitable
(Mesquite, Pahari –12 and 500 C. Extremely drought for coastal
kikar) tolerant. areas
Salvadora oleoides Tree Native to arid and semi-arid Highly suitable
(Jhal, Piloo, Van) deserts and coastal regions. for desert and
Highly drought resistant. coastal areas.

3
 Natural & Artificial Recharge Techniques for Balochistan

Tamarix aphylla Tree Can stand prolonged drought and Highly suitable
(Frash, Ukan) temperatures up to 500 C. Planted for desert
extensively on the sand dunes of areas with
Mastung. shifting sand
dunes
Ziziphus mauritiana Tree Can tolerate an extreme range of Good for valley
(Ber, Beri, Mallah ) temperatures (– 5 to 500C). Has a floor areas with
deep taproot system and is extreme
drought tolerant. Good fruit tree of temperatures.
hot deserts.
Pinus aldarica Tree Drought and chilling low Suitable for
(Quetta Pine) temperature resistant, native to upland areas.
Balochistan and Afghanistan. However, it is
slow growing.
Atriplex lentiformis Shrub Native to hot arid deserts, Good for
(Quailbrush) maximum sprouting rate during lowland desert
winter, supply good forage and areas.
fuel-wood.
Atriplex canescens Shrub The most productive forage Highly suitable
(Fourwing saltbush) shrub. Has potential for for upland
watershed management. Good areas (up to
source of fuel-wood. 8,000 feet)
Simmondsia chinensis Shrub Grows best on well-drained Good for andy
(Jojoba) desert soils, can survive with only area of Kharan
100 mm of rain/annum, evergreen desert.
shrub with 100-year life span
Agropyron cristatum Grass Dense root system up to 2 m. Good for sandy
(Crested Wheatgrass) Adapted to dry conditions with upland areas
125-300 mm annual rainfall.
Becomes dormant during
prolonged dry periods
Cenchrus ciliaris Grass Roots can penetrate below 1 m Native to
(Buffel grass, Dhaman) soil. Drought resistant lowland areas
of Balochistan.
Cynodon dactylon Grass Colonize bare ground and form a Native to
(Bermuda grass, dense mat, Can withstand Balochistan
Khabbal) prolonged drought lowlands.
Elymus junceus Grass Extensive fibrous roots can Suitable for
(Russian wildrye) penetrate to a depth of 3 m. Can high altitude
tolerate drought and is the best areas.
cool season pasture
Elytrigia elongata Grass Cool season perennial grass. Good for
(Tall wheat grass) Promotes soil and water desert areas
conservation with sand
dunes
Panicum antidotale Grass Native to Balochistan and Good for
(Bluepanic, Bansi Afghanistan. Perennial grass that rangelands in
grass, Murrot) grows in summer. upland and
lowland areas

4
 Natural & Artificial Recharge Techniques for Balochistan

The trees, shrubs, grasses found naturally and cultivated in the arid and semi-arid areas have
demonstrated a number of uses like soil stabilizing, controlling soil erosion, controlling runoff,
ameliorating environment, soil reclamation, recharging aquifers, rehabilitating desertified lands,
stabilizing sand dunes, acting as windbreaks and shelter-belts, conserving soil and water, acting
as barriers for wildlife and roadside hedges, providing forage for livestock, providing pods and
food for human beings, providing seeds for food, edible fruits, honey, oils, providing wood for
furniture, building material, agricultural implements, poles, firewood, charcoal, gum, tanning, resin,
etc.

5. ARTIFICIAL RECHARGE TECHNIQUES

The surplus water of precipitation if conserved, through the construction of artificial recharge
devices may be helpful in raising the underground water table through increasing the recharge
into the aquifers. An artificial recharge over natural recharge could be more effective in
increasing permeability by reducing the runoff gradient through enlarging the percolation field and
roughness of the flow bed. Artificial recharge requires careful planning and designing for effective
operation of the system. The maintenance of high infiltration rates is essential to a successful
recharge scheme. The groundwater recharge can be carried out by means of simple to hi-tech
methods.

5.1 Recharge Dams

This technique consists of constructing dams across streams to store floodwater for providing
water to meet future demands and to recharge. The dams delay the passage of flood
flow by retaining it behind an impoundment structure. Recharge can then take place by
infiltration behind the structure itself through the bed of the reservoir. Recharge may also
be allowed to occur by controlled release of water downstream through sluice valves or
gates where it recharges through the pervious downstream riverbed, either in natural or
prepared basins made with small check structures. Regular maintenance is however
required which can take the form of sediment removal, either by hand or by flushing via
gates.
Scores of such dams have been built in Balochistan over the past couple of decades. These are
popularly known as delay action dams. Unfortunately majority of these dams do not have
any means to allow water release downstream of the dam. They typically have high initial
recharge rates due to high porosity of the bed of the reservoirs. However, this falls off
exponentially with each rainstorm due to high silt loads brought in by the feeding stream,
which is typical of Balochistan topography causing clogging of permeable capillary pore
spaces. A solution to this problem could be to either make the body of the dam leaky or
provide enough outlets in the body to allow the stored water to get spread in the
downstream riverbed, where small check structures can be built to allow recharge of
cleaner water.
A limited scale study on the effectiveness of such dams was conducted on Pechi Delay Action
Dam near Ziarat using water balance, isotopic and chemical techniques. The purpose of
the dam was to collect rainwater in flood season and to supplement the nearby karezes
by recharging groundwater. The study failed to establish any hydraulic interconnection
between the dam reservoir and the downstream karezes. The main reason was
concluded to be the heavy fine material sedimentation in the reservoir bed. More
investigations have to be conducted to determine and establish the effectiveness of
these dams in Balochistan.
Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resources has recently constructed a new dam near
Quetta with the aim to offset the problems faced in delay action dams. The main feature

5
 Natural & Artificial Recharge Techniques for Balochistan
of this dam is that, contrary to the existing practice in Balochistan, the main body of the
dam is leaking. The structure of the dam is gabion type with stones held together with
wire mesh. The philosophy behind the dam is that it will allow slow release of water
through it body for recharge to take place in the downstream bed of the stream. The dam
body also has provisions for release of water through a number of sluice valves, which
could be made to work once the dam body gets clogged with sediments. A monitoring
system has also been placed to check on the effectiveness of the dam towards
recharge.

5.2 Loose-Stone Check Dams

It is an old practice in the uplands of the Balochistan to make check-dams in the streams by
putting the stones in such a way that their ends are properly bedded in the stream. The
length of such check dams varies form 20 to 30 feet and the height from 4 to 10 feet
depending upon the depth of the stream at the proposed site of the check-dam. It does
not require much technical knowledge and as stones are available all over the potential
sites. The main purpose of such dams/structures is to check and reduce the flow
velocities of the water to minimized damages to agricultural fields etc. However, these
structures serve the dual purpose of recharging the aquifers.

5.3 Inverted wells

This technique basically consists of drilling a borehole in ground up to aquifer to provide direct
path for water to infiltrate into the ground and thus recharge aquifer. The water may flow
under gravity or may be forcefully injected through reverse pumping. The basic
requirements for an artificial recharge inverted well scheme are adequate source of
water to recharge and the right hydro-geological environment to support such activity.
Recharge wells are used where space is a premium or the aquifer to be recharged is
deep and confined. In operation it is essentially the opposite of groundwater abstraction,
a recharge mound forms rather than a cone of depression due to pumping of water
downward.
Theoretically recharge is achievable at the same rate as abstraction. In practice this is not the
case with suspended solids, entrained air is also a significant factor as well as bacterial
growths and chemical encrustation on the screen of the well. It is reported that good
recharge rates can be achieved through injection well, giving an average ranging from
1,235 to 5,725 m3/day, with a minimum of 200 m3/day and maximum of 51,000 m3/day.
There is need to undertake such technique (cluster of wells) in the beds of existing delay
action dams where water availability is not a big problem and the water mostly
evaporates without recharging the aquifer. It would be however important to design a
very good filter material on top of the well so that sand does not find its way into the
borehole reducing its effectiveness.

5.4 Deep Dug Wells

Dug wells can also be used as recharging devices. The wells are allowed to be filled in with
water during rains. The stored water is then allowed to infiltrate into soil and raise water
level. However, water has a very slow speed in downward infiltration due to a not very
favorable geological formation near to the ground surface. Again there would be greater
need to provide adequate filtration before the water gets to fill the dug well, otherwise
they may get clogged and filled in with sediments.

6
 Natural & Artificial Recharge Techniques for Balochistan
5.5 Ponds and Recharge Basins
These ponds and recharge basins are created by constructing small micro-dams or bunds
across fields. They. The recharge may take place due to deep percolation of the ponded
water beyond the root zone. The ponds thus created not only store water that can be
used for irrigation and recharge purposes but also help to reduce the amount of runoff
and conserve moisture in the root zone. The best areas for trying this type of technique
are fields where there are chances of achieving good sub-soil infiltration. As with
recharge dams again small particles may get accumulated in the beds of the ponds
reducing their recharging effectiveness. It therefore becomes essential that the ponds
de-silted occasionally.

5.6 Depression
Natural depression and low-lying areas also can act as excellent sites for recharging aquifers.
Means to divert water from other places to such sites must, however, be provided.

5.7 Benching
This is the best method used on very steep slopes. Under the technique, high earth or stony
walls/bunds of appropriate height are built at narrow intervals across water paths to help
reduce flow velocities and store water in small quantities for recharge to take place
naturally.

5.8 Surface Spreading

In low rainfall areas, the runoff from upper catchment is directly spread on lands lying in lower
catchments. The floodwater is diverted from normal stream and spread in the ploughed
fields with level or gentle slope and high water absorbing capacity. Surface spreading of
water is done directly as part of a river or stream system by the construction of an
impoundment, online storage, via an off-take structure to an adjacent basin or alongside
the channel. This method is widely used in Balochistan for Khushkaba and sailaba
irrigation. However, it generally not very effective as recharge measure but is excellent
for conserving moisture in the root zone for rainfed agriculture or dry land agriculture.

5.9 Ditches/Furrows
A series of shallow bottom, closely spaced structures are made an lands receiving periodic
precipitation of more than 200 mm. Ditch widths are typically 0.3 to 1.8 meter, making it
less efficient than basins. Water has to be distributed as uniformly as possible over the
whole ditch system; technical effort is required to make this method effective. The
ground contour ditched in the shape of hairpin turns..

5.10 Terraces
The runoff is regulated by making terraces or bunds across the slopes by partitioning the field.
These act as rainwater interceptors and retaining of water within the field.

5.11 Fixed Permeable Riprap Gabions

With a constant size of percolation field and constant gradient, the fixed riprap gabions serve to
increase the roughness of the runoff bed and consequent more percolation of runoff
water.

7
 Natural & Artificial Recharge Techniques for Balochistan
5.17 Ploughing
This technique is mostly used for conserving moisture in soil for agriculture purposes. Prior to
precipitation, the land surface is ploughed to keep it loose for maximum conservation of
water and to check runoff. Contour ploughing with mold bold plough is more effective in
water retention.

6. Balochistan Experience with Recharge Efforts

Groundwater mining in Balochistan is recognized to be a very serious problem facing the water
sector. It is therefore not surprising that numerous efforts have been undertaken to cope with the
alarming situation of depleting water tables. A number of projects have been undertaken in the
past. A very promising and good project was the Zargai Recharge Project established by
Balochistan Minor Irrigation and Agricultural Development Project to evaluate the viability, both
technical and economic of the off-line aquifer recharge scheme. It consisted of three
components, a diversion structure, a storage reservoir and a recharge area. The recharge area
consisted, of a series of zigzag channels through which the rainwater flows slowly and with time
infiltrating into the ground.
Results of the study indicated that infiltration is related to the depth of ponding and that the
optimal depth of ponded water to maximize the recharged is 150 cms. It was found that a net
yearly infiltration volume of 120 cm takes 10 years to reach a 100-meter deep groundwater table
in a silty loam soil, but only 5 years in the same soil with 60% stones. It was concluded that the
artificial recharge schemes in Balochistan had an insignificant impact upon falling of groundwater
levels, and were likely to contribute, an amount of additional water capable of supporting less
than 1.5% of the existing orchards in the project area. The project is now dead.
The experience with delay action dams, an excellent technique, has not been a very good one.
As already discussed the high amounts of sediments and silt load brought in by the feeding
streams in the reservoirs has been the major factor in reducing the effectiveness of the dams as
sources of recharge. It is essential that the dam design may be radically revised to include
provisions for allowing water escapes on the downstream side of the dam body to recharge the
bed of the stream. In the existing dams provision for releasing water can still be provided by
installing siphon tubes system on each dam.
Watershed management is another area where little has been done in the province. Major efforts
are required to undertake watershed management works in potential areas with adequate soil
covers. All future dam projects must have adequate provision for watershed management.
It remains to be seen how effective the recent efforts to recharge aquifers in Balochistan by
constructing leaky dam (as done by PCRWR near Quetta) are successful. It is however,
essential that an integrated approach be made to recharge and conserve water.