ISLAMABAD: Protesting over 42 per cent water shortfall allegedly caused by Sindh irrigation authorities, the Balochistan government has threatened to stay away from the country’s water regulation and the Indus River System Authority (Irsa).

A senior official said that the Balochistan government has repeatedly taken up the matter with the Sindh political leadership, the Council of Common Interests (CCI) and the federal government but its water shortage issue had not been resolved, resulting in colossal loss to its crops.

As a first step, Balochistan’s member in Irsa, Naseem Khan Bazai, will regret his concurrence to any authorisation placed for the release of water from Tarbela or Mangla dams in future.

Mr Bazai confirmed that he would abstain from any regulation “until Sindh province is extended the proportionate reduction in their authorised share”. He said he had written to the federal government to take notice of the state of affairs. He said he had also asked the Balochistan government to seek an urgent meeting of the CCI.

A couple of letters seen by Dawn suggest Balochistan protesting over diversion of its water shares to Sindh’s seasonal canals. “The province of Sindh, by virtue of control over regulation, and being the upper riparian of the Indus system, has been exploiting the share of Balochistan in the Pat Feeder, Khirthar, Uch and Monuthi canals since their commissioning,” said one of the communications.

Since the start of the Kharif season in 2014, water aggression has “assumed alarming proportions, and, on the average shortfall of 42 per cent in its rightful share was extended round the season, resulting in damage to the crops over hundreds of thousands of acres, causing great financial loss and hardship to the poor populace of Jaffarabad, Nasirabad and Jhal Magsi districts,” reported Mr Bazai.

He said that during the entire Kharif season the irrigation department of Balochistan and Irsa vigorously pursued the issue of provision of the province’s rightful share of water at higher levels with the Sindh authorities but they turned deaf ears to it. “The chief minister of Balochistan and the speaker of the Balochistan Assembly wrote strongly worded letters to the chief minister of Sindh on the state of affairs but to no avail,” he said.

He said Balochistan had also filed a comprehensive case on the shortage of water with the CCI which was approved on March 18, 2015, pending formal hearing by the council. He said Sindh was getting, at the time, 50,000-60,000 cusec of water in excess of the allocated share and it was releasing more than 30,000 cusec below the Kotri barrage in the Arabian Sea. The acute shortfall of 42 per cent water in the canals is causing serious damage to the crops, since the start of the Kharif season, resulted in strong agitations and road blockades by the farmers, culminating into the law and order situation in the area.

Mr Bazai said the Sindh irrigation department should have been sensitive to the tense situation between the two provinces, after filing of the case in the CCI, but strangely it continued with its practice of depriving Balochsitan of its rightful water share. “The Canal Irrigation System in Balochistan received acute shortage of water during the Kharif season of 2015 which during the present Kharif season of 2016 has again assumed the alarming situation”, he said.

“As of July 1, 2016, Sindh province is getting 200,000 cusec of water against its original allocation of 141,600 cusec with the excess flow of 58,400 cusec, out of which 20,100 cusec is drained below the Kotri barrage into the Arabian Sea,” he said.

Meanwhile, the situation due to short supplies in Balochistan canals is aggravating. “As of July 1, 2016, heavy shortfall of 42, 29 and 20 per cent in the Khirthar canal, Uch canal and Monuthi canal, have respectively been reported,” Mr Bazai said.

The cumulative shortage in these canals works out to 2,073 cusec out of which 500 cusec of the Khirthar canal is diverted into the Wara canal (operated for the Rabi season only) of Sindh at Ruk X-Regulator (RD. 83 of N.W.Canal) for unauthorised irrigation of its command area whereas 1,573 cusec is passed on to drain in the Arabian Sea, resulting in damage to the crops over hundreds of thousands of acres in the command area of the Canal Irrigation System of Balochistan province in Jaffarabad, Nasirabad and Jhal Magsi districts.

“The state of affairs shows that, given the apathy of the Irrigation Department of Sindh to the demand and requirement in Canal Irrigation System, Balochistan, the paddy crop, particularly in the Khirthar canal, the seedlings will wilt, causing to the damage of Kharif crops sown over hundreds of thousands of areas, adding to the miseries of the poor populace who ultimately, as in the past, would start migrating to other areas of the country,” he said.

Published in Dawn, July 2nd, 2016