LAHORE, July 21: The Punjab on Monday asked the Federal Government to be even handed in awarding money or permission to provinces for studying environmental impact of the Indus Basin Water Treaty.

According to a spokesman of the Punjab Irrigation Department, the province had to take up the issue after Sindh’s refusal to accept the terms of the 91’ Water Accord.

The accord recognizes the need for downstream Kotri releases and allows a study for quantifying the same. But it is limited to saline water intrusion, amount of water required to cleanse it and suggests structural measures to combat it.

The Indus River System Authority (Irsa) had developed Term of References (ToRs) for such a study in 1993, but had not been able to carry it out, he said.

“But Sindh wants to exceed the limits of the accord and undertake a study for the environmental impact of the water reduction, and President Pervez Musharraf obliged Sindh in 2001 by asking the Indus River System Authority (Irsa) to carry out such a study.”

According to him, the Punjab’s case is based upon the fact that if the federal government has to finance such a study, it should allow all the federating units to carry out similar exercise because the Indus Basin Water Treaty has affected the entire country. The Punjab lost three eastern rivers — Ravi, Sutlej and Biyas — to India and environment along these rivers has been badly hit. There has only been water reduction downstream Kotri whereas these rivers have become totally dead, at least for nine months a year. “The federation must foot the bill for such a study,” he said.

“Even if the federal government does not want to finance it, allowing one of the provinces to carry out the study and suggest remedial measures for a certain part of the country will breed a sense of frustration in the country,” the spokesman claimed.

“Sindh now wants to start this study concurrently with the other study for quantifying water, and this is clear violation of the Water Accord. Once allowed, such a step would set a bad precedent and open a Pandora’s box as far as the accord is concerned.”

Talking to Dawn, Irsa chairman Nasr Rajput said that the accord recognized the “need for studies to establish minimum requirements” downstream Kotri and Sindh insisted that it included everything from sea intrusion to environment. That was why, he said, Sindh wanted to include new studies in the accord.

“If we continue making new additions to the accord, it could bring further crisis and harm confidence between the two provinces,” he said.

According to him, Irsa had proposed preparation of another package for environment studies but Sindh had refused to budge from its stand. “It wants to include the study for its environment in the present accord. This could aggravate the problem than solving it,” he added.