QUETTA: Balochistan Assembly Speaker Mir Jan Mohammad Jamali has said that despite several requests made by the provincial government and protests held by the people of the province, the Sindh government has not released Balochistan’s due share of water. Parts of Balochistan falling under the command of River Indus continue to turn into desert because of the Sindh government’s attitude, he added.

Talking to Dawn on Monday, he alleged that the Sindh irrigation department had been using from the share of Balochistan’s water in Pat Feeder, Khirther, Uch and Monuthi canals since their commissioning.

“Because of non-availability of water for years, crops over thousands of acres have been damaged causing great financial losses and hardship to the people of Jaffarabad, Nasirabad and Jhal Magsi districts in Balochistan who depend solely on water from the Indus (river) system for irrigation and drinking,” he said.

Mir Jamali said that in the beginning of the current Kharif season, the Indus River System Authority (Irsa) had allowed 500 cusecs of water in Khirther from May 1 to 10 as sought by the Balochistan irrigation department, but it had been denied and the water was diverted to canals in Sindh. As a result, he said, people living in various towns faced acute shortage of drinking water and paddy and other Kharif crops were badly affected.

Wapda told to address provinces’ fears over water distribution

He said the Balochistan irrigation department and the Irsa chairman had raised the issue with the Sindh government but their complaints fell on deaf ears.

The acute water shortage caused unrest among the farmers who continued to hold protests and sit-ins under the scorching sun. On several occasions, they also blocked roads which created law and order in the area.

Mir Jamali, who was elected from Jaffarabad district, said that in the second week of July, Branch Circle’s Superintending Engineer Saifullah Magsi had written a letter to the Irsa chairman wherein he fixed the allocation of Balochistan from Khirther as 2,200 cusecs (against Irsa’s authorisation of 2,400 cusecs) as per the water apportionment accord.

The Irsa chairman wrote to the Sindh irrigation secretary reminding him that they had agreed that the rating table prepared by a three-member committee of Irsa and Wapda in July 2005 and signed by the chief engineer of Sukkur barrage and chief engineer (south) of the Balochistan irrigation department would be adopted for measurement of discharge from Khirther canal during the current Kharif season till the formulation of a new table.

No response to the Irsa chairman’s letter was received, rather a copy of it was provided to Saifullah Magsi.

Published in Dawn, July 29th, 2014