February 22, 2006	Wednesday	Muharram 23, 1427

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HYDERABAD, Feb 21: Leaders of two major farmers’ organization of the country –- the Sindh Chamber of Agriculture and the Sindh Abadgar Board –- have demanded that Chasma-Jhelum and Taunsa-Panjnad link canals should be closed. Expressing no-confidence in distribution of shortages and surpluses, they said that canals were not being run in accordance with the water accord.

In a joint statement issued here on Monday, Syed Qamaruzzaman Shah and Abdul Majeed Nizamani, presidents of the chamber and the board, respectively, said that the report of the technical committee on water was realistic.

They commended efforts of Mr A. N. G. Abbasi, chairman of the technical committee on water resources, and Sardar Ahmed Mughal, a member of the committee for developing cohesive recommendations.

They said that it was obvious from the report that water flows of the River Jhelum and the River Chenab were more than enough for meeting Kharif requirements both in upper and lower zones.

They said there was no justification for diversion of water to lower tributary areas through Taunsa-Panjnad and Chasma-Jhelum link canals during the Kharif season.

They said that water should not be diverted from the Indus River through Chashma-Jhelum or Taunsa-Panjnad link canals on 10 daily basis unless the share of canals on the Indus main, in accordance with the water accord, newly-approved by the CCI were satisfied.

They said water should not be transferred during the period when water was being stored in Mangla reservoir. They said that during shortage period allocations of canals might be reduced not below 80 per cent of 10 dailies with unanimous consent of provinces.

The leaders said that if adequate water was available in Mangla, it should be provided to lower riparian provinces in early Kharif (April-May) when Indus water was not enough to meet minimum requirements.

They said that the historic use formula devised by the provincial ministerial committee in 1994 had no legal force as it was only an advisory committee.

They demanded that the sanctity of the water accord must be protected and the federal government should take effective steps to ensure that IRSA operates strictly within the scope of the provisions of water accord.

Mr Shah and Mr Nizamani did not agree with the claim that there was an average inflow of 90 MAF at Kalabagh including the flow of Kabul river.

They said that in fact the average inflow at Kalabagh was not even sufficient to meet the downstream requirements.

They opposed the construction of any dam on the Indus river as well as any diversion of water through link canals.

They pointed out that though Mangla dam was constructed 38 years back but no comprehensive operational criteria had been laid down till date.

They said it was important to formulate the operational criteria of the reservoir to remove the apprehensions of stakeholders.

They said it was evident from the pattern of water availability that storable surplus water was available only for ten years out of 28 years as such a dam of six MAF like Kalabagh dam would be filled only for 10 years out of 28.

They said only two MAF water would be available per year and not six MAF as per design.

They said the power generation would not be 2400/3600 mega watt as claimed by the government but only 1434 mega watt.