KARACHI: Judicious distribution to provinces urged: Seminar on water partnership
By Our Staff Reporter
KARACHI, May 29: Speakers at a seminar on Wednesday stressed that if excess water in the river system was available, only then carry-over dams be constructed and judicious distribution of water among all stakeholders be ensured.
They were speaking at the provincial consultative seminar organized by the Pakistan Water Partnership to discuss the merits and demerits of the World Commission on Dams report on “Dams and Development: A New Framework for Decision-making” with reference to Sindh.
They made it clear that they were suggesting only carry-over dams which could be constructed in the northern areas of Skardu or Basha from where no canals could be constructed for water distribution.
They made it clear that apart from the construction, even the discussion on the dams from where water distribution canals could be constructed, particularly the Kalabagh Dam, was out of the question.
They stressed that the proposals for new carry-over dams be considered only after it was proved with data that excess water, after meeting all the commitments done in earlier accords to all the stakeholders, was available.
They pointing out that the stakeholders at the lower reaches of the Indus were not getting their due share of water which, according to them, was being taken away by another province and had been ensured under the 1991 accord. They demanded that a strict management authority be established that could monitor and regulate justifiable distribution.
They said that though majority of water came to Pakistan from the territories of a hostile neighbour (India), it had not breached the water distribution accord entered many decades back, while within the country mistrust was increasing with each passing day between the provinces, particularly Sindh and Punjab, over water distribution due to unjust steps taken by one of the provinces.
They also accused the present authorities managing the Tarbela and Mangla dams that owing to mismanagement, the lifespan of these dams had been reduced as massive deforestation in the catchment areas had led to the accelerated deposit of sedimentation and silting in the dams, reducing their storage capacity.
They suggested that when huge structures of national importance such as Tarbela and Mangla are constructed, strict steps must be taken to ensure that their lifespan was not cut short by actions such as deforestation, etc, by people living upstream or in the catchment areas for short-term gains.
They also suggested that steps such as lining up of canals, etc, be taken to conserve water and alternative sources of water — such as melting of snow on mountain-tops by using advanced technology including lasers — be explored.
They suggested that extensive exercise in the field of cost benefit ratio of the new dams be done and not only the positive effects be highlighted, but its negative effects should also be quantified and reports made public for a wide debate so that the process was transparent and nobody was deprived of due rights.
They demanded that detailed studies should be done to examine the effects — positive as well as negative — of the Tarbela and Mangla dams before taking any decision and to see how these projects had affected the lives and economies of all the people and if these projects have achieved their goals.
Citing examples, they said that due to upstream storages, the water going downstream from Kotri Barrage had decreased. On one hand, it had seriously affected the Palla species of fish and on the other, seawater has been making incursions in the delta, ruining fertile agricultural lands near the coastal areas and the mangroves in the delta region.
They said that the destruction of mangroves had lowered the fishermen’s catch of shrimps, prawns, etc, as the mangroves serve as their nurseries as well as other commercially important marine species, crippling the economies of the fishermen community and the country’s foreign exchange earnings.
They also criticized the construction of the Thal Canal which, according to them, was being constructed without carrying out detailed and sufficient feasibility studies of the project. They also said that projects to increase the cultivated areas in one province should not be started at the cost of decreasing the green areas of another.
They claimed that though Sindh has been deprived of its due water share by a province during the past three years, neither has the culprit been punished nor the victim compensated.
They also criticized the federal government’s hypocrisy and said that at the international level, it advocated that all disputes be solved through debate, discussion and dialogue. But within the country, it was hammering its decisions to favour one province down the throats of smaller provinces and not listening to the reasons and objections being put forward by the smaller federating units.
Some of the speakers also raised suspicion on the independence on the organizers, the PWP, saying that it was housed in the WAPDA House. To this, the organizers said that they planned to move out soon.
The organizers said that the consultative process had been initiated to discuss the availability of water, the guidelines suggested by the report of the WCD, rights and risks of new dams and how to minimize the negative impacts and maximize the positive ones of the new dams, etc.
A seven-member committee headed by A.N.G. Abbasi was constituted to formally finalize the recommendations on the issue with special reference to the province of Sindh.
A.N.G. Abbasi, Syed Qamar-uz-Zaman Shah, A. Majeed Kazi, Mushtaq Mirani, Shaukat A. Rahimoon, Nazeer A. Memon, Khadim Hussain, A. Rasheed Memon, Munir Kazi, Aijaz Qureshi, Ahsan Leghari, S.M. Tariq and others also spoke at the seminar attended by representatives of NGOs, various government departments, educational institutions, water experts, concerned citizens, etc.
