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Regional Office, Bahawalpur
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Regional Office Bahawalpur is an out come of Pakistan Desertification Monitoring Unit
(PADMU) a development project of PCRWR which was initiated during the year 1982, by
establishing its field office at Bahawalpur, to develop desertification control technology
and to combat desertification for sustainable production from the deserts. The field office
of the project was raised to Regional Office, to work with larger mandate for water resources
management and desertification control. Main objectives of the Centre are: to conduct research
on water management, water resources development and desertification control aspects for the
development of desert areas, for sustainable production and developing a stable pleasant
environment, and generation of income sources for the up-gradation of socio-economic conditions
of the desert people by utilizing land, water and plant resources.
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Functions
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To conduct research on water management, water resources development and desertification
control aspects for the development of desert areas, for sustainable production and developing
a stable pleasant environment.
- Generation of income sources for the up-gradation of socio-economic conditions, of the desert
people by utilizing land, water and plant resources.
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Facilities Available |
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Library
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A small library has been established where Scientific Books, Reports, Journals, Bulletins,
News Letters, Proceedings of Conferences and Seminars etc. especially in the field of
desertification control and water resources development are available for reference.
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Soil and Water Quality Laboratory
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Water Quality Laboratory of this office is fully equipped with all necessary instruments
for soil and water analysis. The water is being analyzed for agriculture as well for drinking
purpose. The laboratory consists of following soil and water analysis facilities:
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Alkalinity, Aluminum, Antimony, Ammonia, Arsenic, Barium, Bicarbonate, Boron, Cadmium,
Calcium, Carbonate, COD, Copper, Chloride, Chromium, Cobalt, Colour, Conductivity, DO,
Fluoride, Free CO2, Free Chlorine, Hardness, Iodide, Iron, Lead, Lithium, Manganese, Magnesium,
Mercury, Nickel, Nitrate (N), Nitrite (as NO2), Odour, pH, Phosphorus, Phosphate, Potassium,
Selenium, Silicon, Silver, Sodium, Strontium, Sulphate, Suspended Solids, Taste, Tin, Total
Chlorine, TDS, TSS, Turbidity, Zinc, Coliform and E. Coli.
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ECe (Electrical Conductivity of Soil Extract), pH, CO3, HCO3, CL, SO4 (Anions meq/1), Ca+Mg, Na, K
(Cations meq/1), SAR (Sodium Adsorption Ratio), ESP (Exchangeable Sodium Percentage), Soil Texture
followed by Boucus Method with Sand %, Silt %, Clay %, and Textural Class, Moisture Content Analysis,
Gypsum Requirement, Particle Size Analysis, Cations Size Exchange Capacity, Saturation Percentage.
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Field Research Station
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The Regional office, Bahawalpur has established its Field Research Station (FRS) at Dingarh in the
Cholistan Desert, to conduct applied research on water resources and desertification control in the
desert environment. The station is about 75 km from Bahawalpur City in the smaller Cholistan, where
research on desertification monitoring, its control and mitigation is being carried out. The research
activities are: rainwater harvesting, sand dune stabilization, wind erosion control, afforestaton on dune
land, development of land, saline agriculture (fodder, forage and oil seed crops); silvipasture and orchard
development (grafted zizyphus, date palm etc. by conjunctive use of rain and groundwater, range management
by controlled grazing, saline fish farming and livestock farming of Cholistani breeds etc. More than 150
hectares catchments area has been developed, by removing obstacles and excavation of small ditches, to
increase the runoff efficiency and harvesting maximum rainwater. Seven rainwater harvesting ponds have
been constructed. These ponds can collect about 50000 cubic meter water of rain annually, for drinking
of human and livestock living in the desert area. One reverse osmosis plant has been installed at Dingarh
Field Research Station for desalination of saline water, with capacity of 4000 US gallons per day (8 hours)
for drinking of human and livestock, during dry period.
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Micro Desertification Control Farms
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The micro desertification control farms have been established at 7 sites in Dingarh, Naraywala,
Hyderwali, Malkana, Nidamwla, Marrot and Toba Mian Allah Yar. At each farm 25 acres of land has
been brought under desertification control activities i.e. wind erosion control through micro
barrier checker boards, plantation of trees (acacia, prosopis, amliceps, parkinsonia, tamarix,
ziziphus and varius shrubs for sand dune stablisation, silvipasture and grassland development etc.
The sprinkler irrigation system is installed.
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Meteorological Observatory
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The Regional Office, Bahawalpur has established meteorological observatory at Field Research Station Dingarh,
Cholistan in the year 1989. The observatory is pioneer in Cholistan Desert. The data on rainfall, maximum
and minimum temperatures, relative humidity, wind speed and its direction and pan evaporation is recorded
regularly. Moreover this office has established three mini-meteorological observation points in the Cholistan
Desert, from where data for rainfall and temperature has been collected.
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Services Available
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- Soil and water quality testing and advisory services are available for public and private sector
- Water sources (through rainwater harvesting ponds, turbines, reverse osmosis plants) are developed in the
Cholistan Desert for provision of drinking water.
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| R&D Activities
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| Major Development Projects Completed
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- Mitigation of Drought Disaster in Cholistan Desert by Management of Water Resources (MDDC)
- Integrated Development and Management of Water Resources in Water Scarce areas (IDMOWR)
- National Water Quality Monitoring Programme (NWQMP)
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| The briefs of the projects are given on pages
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| On-Going Development Projects
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- Mitigation of Desertification for Poverty Alleviation by Integrated Management of Land and Water Resources (MDPA)
- Participatory National integrated Water Management Programme (PNIWMP)
- Mass Awareness for Water Conservation and Development
- Water Quality Monitoring in Rural Areas and installation of Low Cost water Conditioning and Filtration Units
- Provision of Safe Drinking Water- Khshal Pakistan Programme
- Arsenic Monitoring and mitigation in Pakistan
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| On-Going Research Studies (Non-Development)
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| (i) Effect of Conjunctive use of saline groundwater and fresh rainwater on Date palm and Grafted Zizyphus orchard in Cholistan Desert.
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A study is being conducted for growing orchard of date palm and zizyphus under conjunctive use of saline groundwater and rainwater collected in the ponds. The soil of the area is very hard therefore, before transplantation of nursery plants; pits of 5 feet deep were excavated and refilled with sand. Row to row and plant to plant distance of 20 feet has been maintained. Trickle irrigation system has been installed for irrigation. At the initial stages of plant growth, only rainwater was applied, till the plants were well established, after that saline groundwater having EC 6.2 dSm-1 and rainwater having EC 0.46 dSm-1 were used alternatively. The irrigation was applied with the interval of one week and on an average 26 liters water was applied to every plant/irrigation. Soil samples were collected and analysed. The EC of surface layer increased from 0.42 to 1.2 dSm-1 whereas, it decreased from 0.42 to 0.37 dSm-1 at the depth of 60 cm within a year. The pH of the soil did not change from 7.6. Growth data of selected plants of date palm during the period under report showed that the height of the plants increased from 105 cm to 150 cm, girth 32 cm to 60 cm whereas canopy cover was enhanced from 125 cm to 170 cm. The vegetative part of the grafted zizyphus plants was damaged due to heavy and unexpected frost occurred in the month of January, 2006. However some plants started re-sprouting and got the height of 64 cm to 130 cm, girth 13 cm to 26 cm and the canopy of the plants was 62 cm to 160 cm. the study is in progress.
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Dingarh Field Research Station, Cholistan
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A rain water harvesting pond
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| (ii) Evaluation of Rangeland Biomass and Carrying Capacity Irrigated by Different Quality Water through Sprinkler Gun.
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A study was conducted for the development of rangeland, by using saline groundwater through rain gun system. The objective was to see the effect of saline groundwater and rainwater on the growth and biomass of natural, perennial and ephemeral vegetation and to develop good range management techniques for increasing carrying capacity of natural grazing land. The area has been fenced with barbed wire to protect it from free livestock grazing herds and to avoid free movement of the people. There are four treatments of the experiment with two replications as given below:
T1 Control (no irrigation)
T2 Rainwater irrigation (EC 0.4 dSm-1)
T3 Highly saline water irrigation (EC 6.2 dSm-1) and
T4 Moderately saline water irrigation (EC 4.2 dSm-1)
T1 no irrigation was applied, whereas in other treatments, 15 mm irrigation water was applied through rain gun after an interval of 30 days regularly, except during rainfall. The data obtained showed, that there is significant difference among all the treatments, however high average value of biomass 8.66 kgs/m2 was obtained for T2 followed by T3, 7.06 kg/m2, T4 6.93 kg/m2 and T1 3.74 kg/m2, respectively.
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Analysis at Soil and Water Quality Laboratory
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Rangeland developed under raingun
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| (iii) Fish Farming by Utilizing Available Saline Groundwater Resource and Barren Land of Cholistan Desert
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A study on saline fish farming is being conducted at Dingarh Field Research Station in Cholistan Desert, to explore the potential of saline fish farming in the desert area and to propagate the concept for local community as an alternative livelihood. Two fish ponds of 70’ x100’ at Dingarh have been constructed and 200 seeds were dropped in each pond by adopting polyculture method (Silver carp, Moori and Rahu species were dropped in equal ratio). The feed combination was 45% rice bran, 5% brown sugar (gur), 35% wheat bran and 15% maize. 3% feed as per body weight was applied in winter and 5% in summer. The data showed that average weight of 1500 grams was recorded for Silver carp followed by Rahu 900 grams and 890 grams Moori respectively. Maximum weight of 1500 grams was obtained for Silver carp followed by Gulfam 1150 grams. The study is in progress.
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Date plam planted under the conjunctive use of rain and saline groundwater
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Saline fish farming at Dingarh Field Research
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