ABSTRACT
Groundwater has emerged as an exceptionally important water resource, and growing demand for its use in agriculture, domestic and industrial contexts grades it as a resource of strategic importance. In view of the high evapotranspiration and salinity environment under which irrigated agriculture in the Indus basin is practised, the availability of surface water resources is only marginally sufficient for basin-wide, year-round highintensity cropping (Bhutta and Smedema, 2007; Qureshi et al., 2009). This difference between crop water requirements and surface water supplies, combined with generally unreliable and relatively inefficient water distribution systems, has led to the exploitation of groundwater where conditions allow (World Bank, 2007; Qureshi et al., 2009).
