ISLAMABAD, March 23: The Indus River System Authority has decided to distribute irrigation water to the provinces on the basis of historic use in the upcoming Kharif season amid continuing tussle between Punjab and Sindh over the 1991 water accord.
Irsa sources told Dawn on Sunday the overall shortage for Kharif has been estimated at below 15 per cent as against 17 per cent recorded during the corresponding season last year.
“The shortage would be somewhere near 12-13 per cent but certainly well below 15 per cent, and that is the reason the distribution would be made on historic use basis,” an Irsa official said.
Irsa’s technical committee, which is to meet on March 27 in Islamabad, would formally inform the provinces about the final estimates of shortages during the Kharif season starting from April 1, and its decision to allocate their shares on historic use basis.
In that case, Sindh would get slightly over one million acre feet (MAF) less compared with the allocations made under the water accord.
Sindh has been demanding for the last three years that shortages should be shared among the provinces strictly in accordance with the provincial shares defined in the accord. Punjab, however, insists that in case of shortages, the principle of historic use should prevail.
The principle of shortage-sharing on the basis of historic use currently holds the ground pending a decision by the government whether or not the dispute be referred to the Supreme Court of Pakistan for adjudication.
Following the worst-ever inter-provincial water dispute, the two provinces had asked the chief executive secretariat in November 2001 to get the section 14(b) of the 1991 water accord interpreted by the apex court whether the shortages are to be shared on accord basis or historic use basis. Status quo has since been maintained which practically favours Punjab.
According to final calculations by the Indus River System Authority, the overall water shortage during the Rabi season stood at around 30 per cent.
The last 10-daily allocations made by Irsa on March 20 suggest that Punjab had a total share of 18.43 MAF during the whole Rabi season. It drew 13.363 MAF and faced a shortage of 27.5 per cent.
Sindh had a total share of 14.137 MAF, of which it utilized 9.040 MAF. The shortage experienced by Sindh was thus calculated at 36 per cent.
The NWFP’s share was calculated at 0.644 MAF while it could utilize only 0.437 MAF. It faced a shortage of around 32 per cent during the Rabi season but that was mainly because
of the inability of its system
to draw its full share and had nothing to do with Irsa allocations.
Similarly, Balochistan’s water share for Rabi was estimated at 0.989 MAF and the province utilized 0.871 MAF and faced a deficit of 12 per cent.
The March 27 meeting would be attended by representatives of all the four provinces, food and agriculture, flood commission, Wapda, Nespak and the Met office.
