The manner in which the Thal canal project has been undertaken is a natural cause for unrest among the people of Sindh, especially when work has been launched before having consensus among the federating units.

The approval of the Thal canal at this juncture is likely to create a wedge between the two provinces, which have been at water war for years. It can be evident from the uproar expressed by almost all political and other circles of Sindh, many of them calling for immediately undoing the project. Not a single day has passed since the inauguration of the Thal canal when a protest rally in Sindh had not held.

Wrangling over the sharing of water between the two provinces has become increasingly bitter since the water crisis became acute, with still no mutually satisfactory formula thrashed out by the IRSA, the authority responsible for water distribution.

Addressing the area people on the occasion of the ground breaking ceremony of the controversial mega project President Gen Pervez Musharraf said the Thal canal project would usher in green revolution, help eradicate poverty and boost prosperity in Khushab, Jhang, Bhakkar and Leiah districts.

The Thal canal is a part of Vision 2025 programme aimed at developing water resources and hydropower of the country. This canal project is situated between Indus and Jhelum rivers in Thal Doab. The project envisages 23 miles of main canal and 223 miles branch canals to irrigate 1.5 million acres. The project will be completed in two stages in seven years at the cost of around Rs 35 billion. The Thal canal, on completion, will provide non-perennial irrigation supplies to 1.535 million acres out of 1.918 million acres gross area, which has no irrigation facility.

While highlighting the expected benefits after completion of the project, the president said that fortune of the area people would be changed and prosperity would flourish among them. Unfortunately at that time the president did not take into account the devastation the project is likely to result on the coastal belt of Sindh.

Degradation of the Indus delta ecosystem as a result of reduced water outflows is already a highly visible phenomenon. Unfortunately our decision makers did not take into account the ill effects of reduced water flows on coastal areas at the time of conceiving and undertaking projects of water damming. It does not in any way means that the dams or barrages should not have been built in our country. Building of dams and barrages, of course, played a decisive role in our agricultural and industrial progress. Every developmental project has some beneficial and detrimental effects. What is necessary is that detrimental effects need to be offset by certain counter measures. The key element what we ignored in diverting the Indus water, and are ignoring till now, is that we did not do any thing to prevent imperative sea intrusion which was caused after reduction of river inflows towards sea.

After construction of Ghulam Mohammad Barrage, in 1951 the coastal areas of Sindh having a gentle slope (1:8000 to 1:10000) started to be encroached upon by sea. The criminal negligence by the concerned authorities, notably Wapda, for tackling this issue has put the whole area on continuous degradation. In the absence of a suitable drainage system, which is direly required by this area than any other part of the country, hundreds of thousands of acres of otherwise fertile agricultural lands have turned into desert and the Indus delta has become a tragic symbol of poor planning and undisciplined greed.

The entire coastline spread over two districts in Sindh — Thatta and Badin — has been badly affected due to non-availability of freshwater. Keti Bandar, Shah Bandar and Kharo Chan subdivisions are the worst hit. At present people in Keti Bandar and Kharo Chan have been bringing drinking water from Ghahro, at a distance of 15 km.

An initial survey of the Board of Revenue shows that unabated sea intrusion has inundated over 1.2 million acres of farmland in the eight coastal tehsils (subdivisions) of Sindh (in two coastal districts of Thatta and Badin), dislocating almost a quarter million of population, and inflicting financial losses of over Rs100 billion so far. Official estimates put complete devastation of more than 450,000 acres of farmland in 72 dehs (villages) spread over eight tehsils in Thatta and Badin. These include six tehsils in Thatta, which are Shah Bunder, Ghora Bari, Kharo Chhan, Mirpur Sakro, Jati and Keti Bunder. Two tehsils in the Badin district - Badin and Golarchi - are now under full sway of the advancing sea-waters. In other 87 dehs of the same eight tehsils of two districts - Thatta and Badin - sea water intrusion has substantially damaged about 500,000 acres of land from where the population has moved away to hinterlands in search of food and water. Not only this the reduced water supply to Kinjher lake has also put at stalk, the already short, fresh (drinking) water supply to Karachi.

Apart from it, the riverine (kutcha) areas of Sindh would get out of production due to control over floods after completion of Thal canal project. ‘Sailaba’ crops are grown on the land adjacent to main river and the creeks. Though crops are sown on the soil moisture soon after the floods, this need more than one watering to mature. As a result Sailaba lands give poor yields and farmers are generally required to provide irrigation facility through shallow tube-wells or lift pumps installed temporarily along the riverbed. Therefore after completion of the Thal canal project significant reduction in floodwater would cripple the riverine agriculture of Sindh.

In such grave scenario how could people of Sindh, who are already facing a serious threat due to consistent water shortage, live without raising objection over the proposed construction of the Thal canal project, which would play havoc with its agriculture? They are of the view that when Indus is already short of required irrigation water, how can another project be started on the same river, which is the main source of water supply to the province.

Therefore unanimous opposition of this mega project by all in Sindh stand justified. Otherwise the present political leadership has initially defended the controversial canal project. It is on the record that Governor of Sindh, Mohammadmian Soomro, while talking to newsmen after attending the inaugural ceremony of a school, at Hyderabad on August 29 last year, said that the proposed construction of the greater Thal canal was being executed in accordance with the Water Accord of 1991. Under the circumstances, he said, the question of protesting on the issue did not arise.

Similarly, Sindh Irrigation Minister Syed Ali Mir Shah during a press conference in Khairpur on July 31, 2001 said that the provincial government had no objection to the multi-billion rupee Greater Thal Canal Project to be undertaken in Punjab as it was a component of the unanimously agreed 1991 Water Accord.

It was only the strong criticism and uproar by Sindh populace that forced the Sindh government to review its decision and look critically and technically into this project by pursuing the interest of water starved province. Consequently, the stand of provincial government on the Thal canal project has changed and it has linked the project with complete and proper implementation of 1991 Water Apportionment Accord.

The government of Sindh took the stand that the sanctity of the 1991 Water Accord was paramount and all aspects of the accord be implemented in letter in spirit. It is declared officially that the Greater Thal Canal project might only be approved simultaneously with the implementation of the other aspects of the accord, including water sharing and provision of water downstream of Kotri to avoid sea intrusion.

The Para 7 of Water Accord 1991 reads, “The need for certain minimum escapade to sea, below Kotri, to check sea intrusion was recognized. Sindh held the view that the optimum level was 10 MAF, which was discussed at length while other studies, indicated lower/higher figures. It was, therefore decided that further studies would be undertaken to establish the minimal escaped need downstream Kotri.”

Unfortunately the issue of fresh water release below Kotri barrage for saving the eco-system has always been tackled politically or administratively, rather than environmentally. Government officials believe the flow of freshwater into the sea is wastage of water. They don’t know that it is a must for keeping the coastal environment alive. Environmentalists believe that the Indus delta needs fresh water flow round the year, not just in flood season. It needs natural fresh flow. Flood water alone can not save the ecosystem.

In case of Thal canal project, an unpleasant surprise is that constitutional and procedural formalities were not fulfilled. Even the executing agency, Wapda started work on the project before its approval by the competent authority i.e. ECNEC.

Most sordid episode of this contentious irrigation project is that the IRSA, that was specially created in 1991 to solve and decide technical matters related to provincial water dispute and who looks after the interests of the provinces as per allocation of water apportionment accord of 1991 was not even consulted for the project. Constitutionally it is imperative under the 1991water accord that before launching any new reservoir on Indus, the scheme was required to be referred to the Indus River System Authority. It is also made known that the approval of the Central Development Working Party (CDWP) and even the Planning and Development Division was also not sought, which was mandatory.

IRSA had also reportedly written a letter to the relevant authorities reminding them that the work on the project could not be initiated without seeking their opinion, particularly in view of the fact that one of the federating units had serious reservation on the project. In addition Sindh has stressed that the project should be reverted to the Central Development Working Party (CDWP) for discussing the technical details of the project.

It is surprising that how Wapda could embark upon executing a project of water reservoir prior to its clearance by IRSA and without the preparation of its feasibility report and without assessing its impact on Indus delta. Wapda should have waited for an approval by the competent authority before starting work on the project.

Keeping in view these deviations from procedural and constitutional formalities of the project the Sindh government has taken a stand over the Thal canal project and expressed concern over the approval of the PC-1 without prior approval of the province and urged the federal government to remove the concerns and reservations of Sindh over this project.

It also took strong exception that the project was cleared by the Central Development Working Party (CDWP) in the absence of the representatives of the Sindh government and without addressing a host of reservation recorded by the Planning Division on the project.

Sindh further said that construction of any new canal must be in conformity with the 1991 Water Sharing Accord and the views and comments of IRSA may be obtained before consideration of the scheme again in the CDWP,

There is an urgent need to build trust between the provinces in order to hold a constructive and rational dialogue on the issue. If both sides are able to adopt a more mature and positive approach, there is hope that an acceptable solution can still be found.