ISLAMABAD, April 12: The government assured the upper house on Monday that necessary steps were being taken to meet the growing demand of water for drinking and irrigation in Balochistan and that a body, led by the prime minister
, was being set up for addressing the future water-related problems of the provinces.
Later, the Senate unanimously adopted a resolution recommending to the federal government to take effective steps for the construction of maximum number of water reservoirs, including small dams in Balochistan.
Federal minister for water and power Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao said it has been decided that a forum, headed by the prime minister, would receive the provinces' complaints about water and resolve them judiciously.
The house witnessed a spirited debate on water issue of Balochistan after a resolution, sought to be moved by Mohammad Akram a treasury senator from Balochistan, was admitted for discussion which consumed the whole proceedings of private members day, leaving behind a 67-point legislative agenda, which included resolutions, amendment bills and motions.
Winding up debate, Mr Sherpao said that the government assigned top priority to the water issue, focussing on Balochistan. He said surveys on small dams was in progress in Loralai, Quetta and Pishin where the prime minister had recently announced a special grant.
The special treatment regarding provision of water to Balochistan was because of the province's inability to utilise its full amount of water share available to it under the 1991 water accord.
Highlighting the importance of the water issue on a global scale, he said that a number of major water projects were already in hand in Balochistan, including Mirani dam costing Rs4.2 billion, Samarah dam costing 1.1 billion rupees and a number of small dams on which feasibility reports were being prepared.
Besides, he said delayed-action and check dams were also being constructed to meet the shortage of water. Earlier, Latif Khosa of the PPP wanted inclusion of the water issue persisting in other parts of the country, including the tribal areas of the NWFP and his native district Dera Ghazi Khan.
The house, however, decided to concentrate on the original resolution on the request of the mover. A treasury member Mohim Khan Baloch listed a large number of areas in Balochistan, which, if irrigated, could yield a good harvest.
He mentioned Kharan, Makran, Hub, Loralai and other areas which needed the attention of the government in provision of drinking as well as irrigation water, which was possible through small dams.
Raza Mohammad Khan Raz of the PMAP said a huge amount of surface water, including river and accumulating after rains, was wasted in the absence of check dams in the province which needed to be given a higher priority.
He cited more then 116 sites under the bed of Kalabagh where small dams with a considerable hydroelectricity generation capacity could be built. Sanaullah Baloch of the BNP (Mengal group) said the province was hit by one of the worst droughts in its history during the past few years but nothing worthwhile was done to solve their water-related problems.
He said only 3.8 per cent of the provincial share of water was used by the province because of the lack of a distribution system, adding that Balochistan was assigned 12 per cent of total water available in the country's river system.
Prof Khurshid Ahmed said Balochistan being most underdeveloped province, adding it needed more funds and more attention in terms of provision of more water resources.
Azizullah Satazkzai, another MMA senator, said the 500- kilometre-long Katchi canal would be completed at a cost of over Rs15 billion, adding that 300 kilometres of its length would pass through Punjab while the remaining 200 kilometres would benefit Balochistan.
He complained that Irsa was providing only 3,000 million acre-foot water from reservoirs against the provincial share of 6,700 million acre-foot. Focussing on the absence of any dam in Balochistan, he said 12,000 maf water was wasted from Bolan river, 13,000 maf to 19,000 maf water from Korang river and 21,000 to 25,000 maf water was wasted from other rivers in the province.
Nisar A. Memon told the house that the house committee on water, led by himself, had suggested to the government a number of water reservoir schemes of which majority has been approved. He said that under one package for Balochistan 41 small dams have been proposed and funds approved.
