24 April 2004	Saturday	03 Rabi-ul-Awwal 1425

ISLAMABAD, April 23: Amid Sindh's estimates of negative water availability for new dams, chairman of the parliamentary committee on water resources, Senator Nisar Memon, has rejected Wapda projections and directed to re-do the whole exercise for accurate water probabilities, Dawn has learnt.

Senator Nisar Memon presided over a meeting here on Thursday to discuss water projections made by Wapda and Sindh. A.N.G. Abbasi, head of the technical committee on water issues, the Sindh secretary irrigation and the Wapda's water member were also present on the occasion.

Sindh and Wapda have differences over the total water availability in the country. Sindh estimates at least negative availability of eight million acre feet (maf) of water. Hence no big dam could be feasible, the province is of the view.

Wapda, on the other hand, estimates that there is sufficient water available in the country which is going waste and demands utilisation through construction of at least two big dams without further delay.

The meeting reviewed the projections presented by Wapda and Sindh's comments on them. It directed Wapda to give a detailed briefing on the River Kabul and its expected usage by Afghanistan and either prove 13maf availability in eastern rivers or delete it from the projections.

The meeting also directed Wapda to ensure 10maf water for downstream Kotri as per directive of the president. It criticized Wapda for presenting four different figures at different forums. Wapda had presented water availability of 142maf at the Pakistan Development Forum (PDF) conference last month and 156maf before the Nisar committee.

The figure provided to the water and power ministry is 138maf based on 1977-2000 data which have been re-estimated at 140maf on the basis of 1977-2003 data. Wapda also claims that big dams are feasible at 50 per cent probability.

Wapda includes 5maf water in its estimates being used by NWFP above rim station and claims only 5maf requirement for downstream Kotri. It also claims that Afghanistan would not use more than 0.5maf of water from the River Kabul and about 8maf would be available to Pakistan from that source.

The water and power authority estimates that India would not use 5maf from Ravi, Sutlej and Beas while there was another 8maf of water being generated by these dams after entering Pakistan and as such total availability was 156maf.

Sindh contended that former water and power minister Farooq Leghari in the ZA Bhutto cabinet had set the principle of dam feasibility at 80 per cent probability in four out of five years and hence Wapda's 50 per cent probability could not be given weight.

It also called for not accounting for 5maf water used by NWFP above rim station because calculations are always based on below rim station. Sindh also argued that centre's 10-year perspective plan and all other planning are based on data from 1922 onwards, and hence Wapda estimates based on 1977 onwards were illogical.

The province also denies that eastern rivers were generating 8maf water and even if this is accepted, why these have not been included in the 1991 water accord. It means that Punjab is fraudulently utilising this water, the province is of the view.

Sindh said there was no guarantee that India would continue to spare 5maf that it was not utilising at the moment from its western rivers and hence could not be included for estimates to build dams.

It also said Afghanistan was planning to build a dam on the River Kabul and there was no guarantee that 8maf would be available to Pakistan without a water treaty with the neighbouring country.

It also argued that Wapda had not indicated as to how to spare water for Thal and other canals and Mangla's upraised capacity. It is of the view that total availability of water is about 138maf, of which 10maf has to be left for downstream Kotri.

Of the remaining 128maf, 117maf is being distributed among the provinces under the 1991 water accord. After deleting 5maf India was currently sparing in Beas, Ravi and Sutlej, could not be relied upon for long because India still had over 500,000 acres of virgin land in that area.

This leaves only 5maf spare water, but Sindh claims that system losses are consuming about 8maf of water and hence there is a negative availability of 8maf. As such, there is no room for a big dam, Sindh contends.