It becomes the duty of every conscious son and daughter of Sindh to raise his voice of protest against the proposed Amendment
A letter is being sent to MNAs and Senators from Sindh to tweak their sleeping patriot.
By Ambassador M. Alam Brohi
As you are well aware the Green Pakistan Initiative held a meeting in the Presidency on 8 July 2024 under the chairmanship of Mr. Asif Ali Zardari, President of the country. The minutes of the meeting show that the President was briefed about the current situation regarding agriculture, irrigation and food security. The agenda of the meeting also included one item of utmost concern to Sindh namely the Amendment in the Indus River System Authority (IRSA) Act with which the President has reportedly concurred and promised to extend his full support in having it adopted by the Parliament.
It is further reported that based on the minutes of the above meeting, the Chairman, WAPDA, on 12 August 2024, directly addressed a letter to the Minister of Water Resources enclosing therewith the text/ manuscript of the proposed Amendment to the IRSA Act without consulting any provincial member of the authority or any provincial government being the stakeholders in the Water Accords of 1991 under which the IRSA was established. The entire process was initiated through the good offices of the President in violation of the Constitution and Rules of Business.
The repercussions of the proposed Amendment in IRSA Act would be far reaching as far as Sindh being the lower riparian region, is concerned, and would be practically tantamount to the gradual winding up of the IRSA.
You may recall, the last Interim Government forwarded an Ordinance for the Amendment of the IRSA Act to the former President Arif Alvi in January 2024, the contrary counsel of the Cabinet Ministers notwithstanding. The President, Arif Alvi, in his wisdom, returned the Ordinance after recording his objections as the people of Sindh had opposed the Ordinance tooth and nail. Finally the Ordinance lapsed without becoming an Act. Probably, with a view to silencing the opposition of the provincial administration of Sindh and securing the support of the parliamentarians from the lower riparian province of Sindh for the proposed Amendment in the IRSA Act, the executive, somewhat conspiratorially, has aided and goaded WAPDA and Green Pakistan Initiative to solicit the prior approval of the President who hails from Sindh, and is the Chairman of the PPPP, the main coalition partner of the Government. They know, it is the Sindh whose rights to Indus waters, being at the tail, are more at stake than any other province, and the strong opposition to the proposed Amendment would, therefore, emerge from the people and the parliamentarians of this province. Hence, the prior concurrence of the President.
It becomes more compulsory for you, Honourable Member being the elected representative of a huge constituency, to oppose this blatant violation of the IRSA and the sanctity of the Inter-provincial Water Accords 1991.
The repercussions of the proposed Amendment in IRSA Act would be far reaching as far as Sindh being the lower riparian region, is concerned, and would be practically tantamount to the gradual winding up of the IRSA.
For instance: 1) there would be no chairman of IRSA, by rotation, from amongst the members appointed by the Federal and Provincial Governments; 2) the Chairman would be appointed by the Prime Minister (not the federal government) from amongst the in-service or retired bureaucrats of 21 grade; 3) the chairman would establish a parallel secretariat under a Technical Secretary; 4) he would be empowered to appoint a technical committee to devise, regulate and oversee the apportionment of irrigation waters to the peril of the agreed water sharing formula under IRSA; 5) he would also be empowered to declare any barrage, dam or canal related to IRSA as an strategic asset soliciting the help and support of the army through the federal government for its implementation; 6) this clause paves the way for the revival of the controversial water projects including the Kalabagh Dam rejected by all the three smaller provinces of Sindh, KPK and Balochistan; 7) the Amendment would constitute a new institutional structure to gradually wind up IRSA in which the smaller provinces have enough maneuvering space to protect their rights to Indus Irrigation waters within the current institutional set up or through the Council of Common Interests.
Read – Pakistan: Four in One
Many of our worthy members may not be aware of the background of the proposed Amendment to the IRSA Act. The WAPDA with the support of the Government of Punjab has, for years, at anvil sprawling water projects for converting 6 million acres of land of Cholistan desert into green fields. The project envisages: 1) Three dams downstream Qadirabad Barrage: i) Shah Jewna dam (1.3 million acre feet or maf), ii) Chiniot dam (1.00 maf), and iii) Mad Ranjha dam (1.2maf); 2) two new Barrages on Sutlej river at Bahawalnagar (0.36 maf) and Hasilpur (0.9 maf); 3) three canals: i) A 195 kilometer long Chiniot-Hasilpur Link Canal (15000 maf); ii) second thev130 kilometer long main canal with a capacity of 8500 maf irrigating over 2.1 million acres in the Cholistan region; third the100 kilometer long main canal carrying 5500 maf to irrigate about 1.4 million acres in Bahawalpur and Khanpur. The project is estimated to cost the exchequer $1.5billion.
Sindh already suffers from chronic shortage of water in its Khareef season except in seasonal floods. It needs minimum 10 million acre feet sweet water to flow into the Sea as agreed in the Water Accords of 1991.
This year, the Irrigation Department of Punjab had presented the “Smaller Cholistan Water Project” to the IRSA for the irrigation of 2.0 million acres soliciting the confirmation of the availability of water. Barring the sole member of Sindh, no other member had opposed the project. We may recall, the IRSA regulates and oversees the water sharing formula between all the four stakeholders under the Water Accords of 1991. It has no power to confirm the availability of water for any water project outside the purview of the above water accords. This, too, could be the motivating factor to cut IRSA to size to make way for the controversial water projects as detailed above.
Sindh already suffers from chronic shortage of water in its Khareef season except in seasonal floods. It needs minimum 10 million acre feet sweet water to flow into the Sea as agreed in the Water Accords of 1991. Sindh has never had this much water for flow into the Sea to stop its swallowing up the arable lands of the coastal districts of Thatta, Sujawal and Badin. These districts have already lost 3million acres of arable land to the Sea in these districts drifting further to poverty and abjection. Owing to the shortage of sweet water, the Sindh Delta – one of the biggest in the world – has almost been ruined along with its ecosystem, wild and marine life.
With all these dams and canals taking water from the Indus River upstream and out of the IRSA, the water stressed province of Sindh whose economy is mainly based on agriculture sector would find itself in an utterly precarious situation with the ruination of the above coastal districts and Delta by the intruding Sea and the arable lands at the tail of the current irrigation structure by persistent draught. Therefore, it becomes the duty of every conscious son and daughter of Sindh to raise his voice of protest against the proposed Amendment. It becomes more compulsory for you, Honourable Member being the elected representative of a huge constituency, to oppose this blatant violation of the IRSA and the sanctity of the Inter-provincial Water Accords 1991.
Read: Sindh –A Province in Turmoil
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The author is a former member of the Foreign Service of Pakistan and has served as Ambassador for seven years.
The purpose of amendment in IRSA act Sims at taking away the water share of Sindh without seeking approvals from different layers of elements present.By changing its character provinces would be deprived of their say and control in regulation and apportionment of water quantity coming it their shares particularly Sindh.Sindh will be ruined by this way and one can see the proof of that while standing at Kotri barrage .