The Punjab establishment, in collaboration with WAPDA, has taken up another old project involving the construction of four water reservoirs: two on the Chenab River at Mid Ranjha and Chiniot, and two on the Sutlej River at Bahawalnagar and Hasilpur. These reservoirs would be utilized to irrigate huge tracts of Cholistan’s land as part of the Green Pakistan Initiative.
We know that the Chenab River is a tributary of the River Indus. The construction of water reservoirs on it would affect Sindh’s share of water, as it is the lower riparian.
Ambassador M. Alam Brohi
Though the controversy over the six canals downstream of Kalabagh, based on a water availability certificate issued by IRSA, erupted in July 2024 when WAPDA surreptitiously obtained the approval of President Asif Ali Zardari by convincing him of the availability of water in the system, the project per se is an old one and dates back to the Musharraf era. It included the Jhelum Right Bank and Thal canals and the Rainee Flood Feeder. Two more canals, Thar and Cholistan, were added to the project. The Thar Canal will feed Tharparkar in Sindh. Interestingly, Sindh has already rejected it, terming it a camouflage for other canals.
These four canals have a command area of over 6 million acres. They would take over 40,000 cusecs of water directly from the River Indus between Kalabagh and Taunsa Barrage, irrespective of the season. We may note that the canals of Sindh off-taking from Guddu (3) and Sukkur Barrages (7) usually face a collective water scarcity of over 19.5%, or some 120,000 cusecs, except during flood seasons. The commissioning of the above canals will further adversely affect Sindh’s share of water flowing over 400 kilometers from Taunsa Barrage to Guddu, with seepage into the Taunsa Flood Canal, evaporation and pilferage by local landlords adding to the losses.
The Punjab establishment, in collaboration with WAPDA, has taken up another old project involving the construction of four water reservoirs: two on the Chenab River at Mid Ranjha and Chiniot, and two on the Sutlej River at Bahawalnagar and Hasilpur. These reservoirs would be utilized to irrigate huge tracts of Cholistan’s land as part of the Green Pakistan Initiative. We know that the Chenab River is a tributary of the River Indus. The construction of water reservoirs on it would affect Sindh’s share of water, as it is the lower riparian.
The Sutlej River was handed over to India under the Indus Water Basin Treaty. Its waters are regulated by India. Some water is available in it during the flood seasons; otherwise, it remains dry. Therefore, the availability of water in it would be erratic and unreliable. Spending huge funds on a project of this nature is unfathomable unless another water source to fill the reservoir through a link canal is made available. WAPDA’s projects have always been lopsided and unfairly disadvantageous to smaller provinces. The main agricultural belt of Balochistan, including Nasirabad and parts of the Sibbi Divisions, depends for irrigation water on the canals off-taking from Guddu. These are the Beggary and Pat Feeder canals.
As a federal country with a constitutional forum, the Council of Common Interests (CCI), for the resolution of such controversies, our leaders should consciously avoid taking unilateral decisions regarding major development projects within the Public Sector Development Program (PSDP) or provincial projects involving federal development and financial institutions. These projects should be presented to the CCI before being processed for approval by the competent authority. This will end interprovincial disputes and acrimony.
Any shortage of water in the Indus River system for any reason, whether natural causes, erratic monsoons, pilferage, the filling of dams during sowing seasons, the conversion of a flood canal into a perennial canal, or the diversion of more water from the Indus River through the Jhelum and Taunsa link canals, will inevitably affect both Sindh and Balochistan. This is the paradox of the tail-end regions. Therefore, the national institutions responsible for the construction of new water reservoirs should take into consideration the water needs of these provinces at the tail end.
Sindh has a delta stretching from Karachi to Ketti Bandar in Badin District. The delta had thick mangrove forests, with various fish and other marine animals, which are now perishing. The delta used to be enriched by the mighty waves of the River Indus, carrying over 450 tons of silt and spreading it over the delta. However, the Tarbela and Mangla Dams have tamed the tides of the river. In the Water Accord of 1991, it was agreed to release at least 10 to 7 million acre-feet of water into the delta to prevent the sea from advancing towards the coastal areas, making them saline and waterlogged and rendering them barren.
Since 1991, no more than 5 million acre-feet of water has flowed into the sea, which is inadequate to stop it from encroaching on the coastal areas. So far, the districts of Thatta, Sujawal and Badin have lost millions of acres of agricultural land to the advancing sea. Palla fish has become rare. We used to have nice restaurants at Kotri Bridge serving Palla fish. Palla fish hatches in the mangrove forests and swims upstream against the flow of the river. Before reaching Kotri, it would grow into a big fish weighing over a kilo. One of the biggest deltas in the world is dying because our people upstream consider the flow of sweet water into the sea as wastage. Ignorance, thy name.
Changing the geography of a federal constituent requires multi-layered consultations with the province’s leaders, national economic and financial institutions, and the country’s administrative machinery because new provinces should be politically, economically, financially and administratively sustainable. We cite the example of India, which increased the number of its states from 14 to 28. The other examples many of our intellectuals have quoted are of unitary states, not federal states, including the Netherlands and Japan.
They have administrative districts or prefectures, not political units. The latter have political set-ups, while the former are administered by a senior officer of the administrative machinery. We have 150 districts and 36 divisions in our country.
Yes, India created many states, taking into consideration ethnic, linguistic, cultural and political affiliations, as well as administrative convenience. However, we forget to tell our people that India formed a State Reorganization Commission in 1951, which thoroughly surveyed the regions, held multi-layered consultations, and made its recommendations three years after its inception. This commission is still in place. We want to conceive proposals and implement them overnight. We reaped the damaging outcomes of this haste in the earlier schemes of Parity, One-Unit, and the federalization of Karachi.
Read: Who Is the Real Victor?
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The writer is a former member of the Foreign Service of Pakistan and has served as Ambassador for two terms. He is the author of five books.
