a network of canals. This system has been greatly expanded and improved in recent years by the construction of link-canals, dams and barrages as a result of the Indus Water Treaty with India, which awarded the three western rivers (Indus, Jhelum and Chenab) to Pakistan, and the three eastern rivers (Ravi, Sutlej and Beas) to India. Tarbela Dam on river Indus and Mangla Dam on River Jhelum, which have water storage capacities of 11.1 million acre ft. and 5.55 million acre ft. respectively. Irrigation water is supplemented by summer and winter rains(15-20 inches) so that a variety of crops is raised, the major ones being wheat, rice, cotton and sugarcane. The region has earned the name of granary of Pakistan. However, the blessings of canal irrigation have not been without a curse, which render about 100,000 acres of land unproductive every year through waterlogging and salinity. The menace has been greatly controlled through salinity control and reclamation projects. Agricultural development boosted urbanization and industrialisation so that the region has emerged as the most important economically developed area of Pakistan, containing over 56% of the population and most of the commercial and industrial centres of the country, such as Lahore, Faisalabad, Multan, Gujranwala, Sialkot and Gujrat.
