Cholistan's water table is falling. Here is what the numbers show.

Ask any herder near Yazman how the water has changed and you will get the same answer with different numbers attached: the pump has to go deeper. We wanted to know how much deeper, so in 2022 we started reading twelve tubewells every quarter and writing the depths down.

The method, briefly

Twelve wells, chosen to spread across the Yazman–Derawar corridor rather than to cluster near the road. Each is read with a tape at the same time of the quarter, by the same two volunteers where possible. We record the static level, the pump depth and whether the well was running that day. Rainfall comes from the nearest station.

The average static level across the twelve wells fell 3.4 metres in four years. The two wettest quarters barely register in the trend.

What the shape of the curve means

A falling line is expected in a dry stretch. What matters is whether it recovers when rain comes. In our set, it does not — recovery after the good monsoon of 2024 lasted two quarters, then the decline resumed at the same slope. That points to extraction outrunning recharge rather than a run of bad weather.

The second finding is about quality, not quantity. Three of the twelve wells have become measurably more saline over the same period. In a thin aquifer, drawing down the fresh layer pulls brackish water up behind it. That change is effectively permanent on any timescale useful to a family living there.

Why this is a livestock story

Cholistan's economy runs on herds. When a household well turns saline, the animals move to the nearest working water point, which concentrates grazing pressure exactly where the ground is already bare. The environmental damage and the economic damage arrive together.

What would help

• Repair the tobas. Traditional rainwater ponds store the rain where it falls and take pressure off the aquifer. Forty-six repaired so far; there are hundreds more.
• Meter and publish. Nobody manages what nobody measures. Quarterly public readings make decline arguable with numbers instead of anecdotes.
• Solar with limits. Solar tubewells cut fuel costs, which is good, and make pumping nearly free, which is not. Pairing them with an agreed extraction cap matters.
• Test before treating. Households buying filters for a salinity problem are spending money on the wrong device.

The data

All readings are published as an open spreadsheet, free to reuse with attribution. If you run a well in the corridor and would like it added to the set, get in touch — the more wells, the better the picture.