STUDY OF SOIL EROSION, SEDIMENTATION AND ASSOCIATED PESTICIDE CONTAMINATION Manzoor Ahmad Choudhry Head Radioisotope Hy

1. STUDY OF SOIL EROSION, SEDIMENTATION AND ASSOCIATED PESTICIDE CONTAMINATION Manzoor Ahmad Choudhry Head Radioisotope Hydrology Group Radiation and Isotope Application Division Pakistan Institute of Nuclear Science & Technology P. O. Nilore, Islamabad, Pakistan Phone: 92 51 9290261 Fax: 92 51-9290275 Email: manzoor@pinstech.org.pk

2. Map of Pakistan and Drainage System Total Population: 130 M (agribusiness 60%) Total area: 79.61 M.ha. Cultivated: 23.0 M.ha. (25% rain-fed) Climate: arid and semiarid Annual Rainfall: 100 to 2000 mm (Extreme floods in monsoon) Temperature: Below freezing to 52oC  soil erosion is the most severe problem in rain-fed areas

3. AREA AFFECTED BY WATER EROSION • PROVINCE • DEG. OF EROSIONPUNJAB SINDH NWFPBALO.N.A.PAKISTAN(Thousand Hectares) • Slight (Sheet & rill) 61.2 156.3 180.5 398.0 • Moderate(Sheet & rill) 896.8 853.8 1805.0 25.8 3581.4 • Severe(Rill, gully &/or 588.1 58.9 1765.1 829.6 504.2 3745.9 streambank) • Very severe(gully, 357.9 1517.0 1571.6 3446.5 • pipe & pinnacle) • Total 1904.0 58.9 4292.2 2634.6 2282.1 11171.8

4. AREA AFFECTED BY WATER EROSION • PROVINCE • DEG. OF EROSIONPUNJABSINDHNWFPBALO.PAKISTAN(Thousand Hectares) • Slight 2251.4 295.0 13.1 36.0 2595.5 • Moderate 279.1 70.2 3.8 143.6 496.7 • Severe to Very 1274.0 273.8 19.6 100.9 1668.3 Severe • Total 3804.5 639.0 36.5 280.5 4760.5

5. POTHWAR AREA • Total Area = 18 .6 M.Acres (Cultivated: 7.9 M.Acre, Livestock Ranges: 9.9 M. Acre and 0.8 million acre is forest) • Undulating topography • Mostly loess parent material • Rainfall: 375 to 1750 mm (Concentrated in monsoon) • Rainfall in Study Area: 850 mm • Highly susceptible to water erosion • Types of erosion: sheet, rill, gully and bank erosion. • slight to moderate sheet and rill erosion • of cultivated land is most common. • Small Dams: 43 • Mini dams: 550 (10 Acres ) • Ponds: > 1000 (7.5 Acres)

6. GENERAL PROBLEMS Aggravated productivity decline due to soil erosion Soil loss (3.0 - 4.5 t/ha/yr from cultivared fields)  Siltation of conveyance systems and reservoirs  Environmental pollution(water pollution sue to agrochemicals

7. OBJECTIVES • General objectives: • To develop technical know-how and establish facilities for application of nuclear techniques measuring soil erosion and sedimentation, • To promote of these techniques in the end-user departments and to popularize soil and agro-chemical management practices suitable for rain-fed areas among the farmers through extension department. • The specific objectives • To assess soil erosion and redistribution rates in the fields • To investigate soil fertility degradation under differently eroded fields. • To evaluate different soil and crop management practices for erosion control • To investigate pesticides residue, transport and relationship with soil loss. • To promote and popularize the application of nuclear techniques for measuring soil erosion and sedimentation.

8. Partner Institutes • Pakistan Institute of Nuclear Science and Technology, Radiation and Isotope Application Division (RIAD), P.O. Nilore, Islamabad, Pakistan. • National Agricultural Research Center (NARC), Pakistan Agricultural Research Council (PARC), Islamabad, Pakistan. • Nuclear Institute for Agriculture and Biology (NIAB), Jhang Road, Faisalabad, Pakistan.

9. FACILITIES • Field infrastructure • Flumes for measurement of surface runoff • Field staff for collection of samples • Facilities for 137Cs • High Purity Germanium Detection System with complete gamma library for low level counting (EURISYS MEASURES, France): Rel. eff. ~ 52%, Res. ~ 2 keV. • Two High Purity Germanium Detection System in the sister division (NPD) (EURISYS MEASURES: Rel. eff. ~ 40%, Res. ~ 2 keV. And Canberra) • Scraper frame and manual corers. • Ring mill

10. Sieving set with shaker • Mackereth corer for sediment core samples from reservoirs • Special boat with winch for Mackereth corer. • Motorized soil corer with all accessories Augers for soil core samples, Ovens, Grinder, Weighing balances • Soil- 6 • Surveying instrument • Facilities for application of environmental isotopes: • Three Liquid Scintillation Spectrometers • Four Mass Spectrophotometers • Sample preparation system for isotopes like 2H, 18O, 13C, 34S, 15N, 3H, 14C etc. (Locally fabricated)

11. Facilities for applications of artificial radiotracer: • Nuclear research reactors (PARR-I) and radioisotope production facilities • A number of scintillation detectors (up to 3” x3”) / GM tubes, counting sets, X-Y plotters, • MINEKIN sets for radiation detection in the field • Facilities for chemical analysis: • Atomic Absorption Spectrometer (Hitachi) • Flame Photometer • Gas Analyzer • Microprocessor Ion Selective Electrodes • UV/ Visible Spectrophotometer • XRD, XRF (sister division, NPD) • Facilities for pesticide analysis (available at NIAB) • HPLC, GC, ELISA

12. STAFF TRAINING • Participation in Training Workshops: (1) One participant in Cs-137 Techniques (2) One participant in Pesticide Contamination • Scientific visits: (1) Mr. Waheed Akram, two weeks from 27 October to 8 November 2003 (2) Mr. Jamil A. Tariq, two weeks from 23 February to 5 March 2004 (China & Australia)

13. FUTURE INPUTS FROM IAEA a. Training fellowship (2 MM) b. Equipment and consumables c. Sub-contract: d. Expert Mission:

14. FIELD STUDIES (a) A test of hypothetical hill-slope-streambed soil redistribution model using 137Cs technique (b) Soil redistribution and pesticide contamination in cultivated fields at Fateh Jang (c) Soil erosion from Satameel Catchment-2 (Rawal watershed) (d)  Soil erosion and sedimentation in Sandaymar catchment and dam reservoir