The Indus River System Authority’s suggestion that the government should divert all development spending to building water reservoirs to overcome the approaching water crisis is too radical to receive the government’s nod. It does, however, convey the gravity of the situation and the need for urgent action to tackle the problem.

In a major departure, the Irsa, asks the government to freeze the country’s entire public sector development programme (PSDP) for five years and divert its funds towards construction of major water reservoirs on war footing. The suggestion was made in a letter, issued after a meeting of the Authority, attended by five members, and was sent to the secretary, water and power ministry on February 25 by chairman of Irsa.

The letter says “To put an end to the misery faced by the country, the PSDP for all sectors be frozen for at least five years and funds may be diverted for the construction of mega storages on priority basis in the best interest of public.”

IN the current fiscal year, an amount of Rs1.175trn was allocated to the consolidated PSDP to be funded by both provincial and federal budgets.

Aware that it was asking too much, the Irsa pleads for at least construction of 22m acre feet (MAF) storage capacity at the earliest. The Irsa proposal follows the fears expressed recently by minister for water and power Khwaja Asif about growing water shortages which, he said, ‘may force the people to forget current energy shortages.’

Federal planning minister Ahsan Iqbal warns that if new reservoirs are not built and available water resources not efficiently managed, half of the country may face a Thar-like drought

Many water experts and institutions such as the World Bank and US Senate foreign relations committee have, in recent past, been expressing concern over water shortages and warning Pakistan about a major water crisis in the next 10-40 years if no appropriate remedial measures were taken. Then, there are indications that Himalayan glaciers, contributing over 80pc water to the Indus river that feeds more than 65pc of the country’s agriculture, were receding at a rate of 30-50 metres annually. The Himalayas contain the world’s third largest ice mass after Antarctica and Greenland.

The fact remains that there is no escape from building big storages where water from floods could be preserved for multiple uses including irrigation. Federal planning minister Ahsan Iqbal warns that if new reservoirs are not built and available water resources not efficiently managed, half of the country may face a Thar-like drought. At present, Pakistan’s water storage capacity is around 7pc of the total available water.

Whenever floods hit the country and its agriculture, there are strong voices for construction of big dams and reservoirs to store the floodwater which goes waste. Soon after, these voices die down. Mirza Asif Baig, Pakistan commissioner for Indus waters, says the country would not have suffered colossal losses in terms of humans, property, crops, cattleheads and infrastructure, nor had the huge quantum of water thus released by swollen rivers gone waste, had there been more dams than the three: Tarbela, Mangla and Chashma.

Ahmer Bilal Soofi, a legal expert on water issues, says, “We can blame India’s conduct as an upper riparian state only up to a point for our water issues. What of our own conduct and responsibilities as a lower riparian state? Lamentably, we have been wasting our water resources with almost criminal negligence and abandon.” Articles 11 and 12 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which Pakistan ratified in 2008, binds the country to better manage its territorial water resources in order to secure the right to water of its citizens.

The provinces, under Irsa’s water apportionment accord of 1991, are often seen more concerned about implementation of the agreed allocation of water to them while completely ignoring its Article 6 which states that ‘the need for storages, wherever feasible on the Indus and other rivers was admitted and recognised by the participants for planned future agricultural development’.

So far, the provinces have not come up with any meaningful water storage programme. This non-compliance by provinces also hinders the federation from fully performing its international law obligations.

Published in Dawn, Economic & Business March 16th , 2015

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