ISLAMABAD, Oct 1: Sindh will get 12 million acre feet (MAF) in the Rabi season, which is 2.82 MAF or about five per cent less than its original water share fixed under the 1991 water apportionment accord, it is learnt.
According to the Rabi Water Distribution Plan approved by the Indus River System Authority, Punjab would get about 17 MAF of water, out of total water availability of 33.98 MAF during the season. The total availability included about 10.8 MAF water already available in the reservoirs and 23.18 MAF expected to be available in rivers during the entire Rabi season, Irsa sources told Dawn on Sunday.
Since the available water would be distributed among the provinces on historical basis (1977-82) due to overall 14 per cent expected shortages, Sindh will be the major loser. Under normal circumstances, Sindh’s share for Rabi comes to about 14.82 MAF or 40.04 per cent of total 37.01 MAF water apportioned by the 1991 accord. During this Rabi, however, Sindh will get 12 MAF, which comes to 35.31 per cent of the 33.98 MAF water forecast by Irsa.
Under the Irsa decision, Punjab will get 17 MAF of water compared with 18.87 MAF fixed in the 1991 accord. In this way, Punjab will lose about 1.87 MAF of its water share but in terms of percentage, its losses are nominal. It will get 50.03 per cent share of 33.98 MAF, instead of original 50.986 per cent.
The 14 per cent water shortage will not be applied to Balochistan and the NWFP and they will get three and two per cent share or 1.02 MAF and 0.701 MAF, respectively. About 0.05 MAF water will be allowed to go downstream Kotri during Rabi and another 2.4 MAF or seven per cent of expected water availability has been shown as system losses.
Mainly because of this heavy toll, Sindh representatives at the advisory committee meeting of Irsa had demanded distribution of water on the basis of Para-two of the accord; otherwise Sindh would refer the issue to the Council of Common Interests. It was on their insistence that these views were recorded in the minutes of the advisory committee meeting, the sources said, adding that the provincial government had asked its legal team to prepare a case for the next CCI meeting.
The sources said Sindh’s Irsa member Mohammad Khan Memon, who would take over as chairman of Irsa on Oct 16, had made it clear that he would support Sindh’s case before the CCI. Under the accord, it is now Sindh’s turn to head Irsa for two years.
The Irsa sources said the provinces utilised 63 MAF (about 58.9 per cent) of the total 107 MAF water available during the just-concluded Kharif season. About 20 MAF water went downstream Kotri during Kharif and about 12 MAF (11.21 per cent) was reported as losses. Another 10.8 MAF water had been carried forward to the Rabi season, they said.
