KARACHI: Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah on Monday told the Sindh legislature that his government was making all-out efforts to get the water of its share as promised in the 1991 water accord to make it sure that water could reach the Indus delta.

Replying to a question asked by Khurram Sher Zaman in which the member belonging to the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf asked whether it was a fact that Indus Delta was facing severe degradation mainly because of drastically low flow of fresh water downstream Kotri Barrage.

Mr Shah, who also holds the irrigation portfolio, said his government was trying its level best at all levels to make sure that adequate water be flowed downstream Kotri Barrage, however, he bitterly said, in most instances, Sindh was not getting water as per its share promised in accordance with the water accord agreed upon more than quarter a century ago.

However, he said it had not deterred his government to stop pursuing the relevant forums to get Sindh’s due share.

He said though the Kalabagh Dam was already a dead issue, yet, the Sindh Assembly should pass a resolution against it anew.

Besides, he added, the closure of the Rohri Canal by the National Accountability Bureau investigating alleged corruption of the irrigation officials had gravely affected the areas hooked to it.

Water supply to the Rohri Canal, which irrigates 2.6 million acres of land, has been stopped since the Sindh High Court (SHC) order on a National Accountability Bureau (NAB) plea. The SHC ordered the closure of the canal to allow NAB to investigate alleged corruption of the irrigation officials.

Mr Shah proposed to the house to spare a full day’s session to discuss the water issues as faced by the province. He said being a province in the lower riparian Sindh had huge disadvantage than other provinces.

“It is a huge task to make sure that water flowing out of the Sukkur Barrage reaches the delta region,” said CM Shah.

He said Sindh mainly constitute of deposition of silt brought by flows of River Indus during millions of years. With utilisation of water for purpose of raising crops the flows into Arabian Sea has disseminated which has caused the silt deposition process to reverse, resulting sea intrusion and degradation of lands in coastal belt.

“The irrigation ministry has been pursuing allocation of water for minimal escapades downstream Kotri Barrage, to IRSA, which is provided in case of availability in the dams, which facilitates growth of mangrove forests in the deltaic region.”

To another question asked by Heer Soho of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, Mr Shah said so far 35 small dams had been built in Nagarparkar and Kohistan regions of Sindh under an ongoing project and work on 23 others was going on.

He said those dams were water reservoirs only and there was no provision for them to produce electricity.

He said there were few such dams had been constructed in Karachi as well, but they could be built in the areas where they were found feasible. He said 14 small dams had been constructed in Kohistan-Dadu and work on nine more in the region was going on.

He said the Small Dams Organisation had been established for construction of small dams in 2007-08.

To a question asked by Nusrat Sahar Abbasi, Mr Shah said after the commissioning of Sukkur Barrage in 1932, it was experienced that the right bank canals (Dadu, Rice and NW canals) were depositing silt on a large scale. The hydraulic model was run in 1938 at Puna, India. As such some river training works were recommended and carried out in 1938-40.

As a result of that, he said, 10 gates out of 66 barrage gates were closed on the right side and an island was officially created.

“This island comprises over 38 acres but not 50 acres. The function of the barrage is to maintain upstream water level by way of regulation of the gates in order to supply required water into the off-taking canals, hence gates are functioning and the required water is supplied to Rice, Dadu and NW canals by raising the water level in the upstream of River Indus. No loss to irrigation system due to position of silt in front of gate No. six to 14,” he said.

He said the irrigation ministry was irrigating the island and there was no occupation by others as was being wrongly reported.

To another question by the same member, the chief minister said there was no proposal to deploy Rangers on canals. He said the irrigation ministry with the assistance of police department was continuously watching the canals.

To a question asked by MPA Rana Ansar, Mr Shah said the restoration and rehabilitation works were carried out on the left and right side embankments of Indus including the FP Bund. He said there were 170 related schemes costing more than Rs18 billion.

“These schemes were carried out under funds provided by the Asian Development Bank as well as by the Sindh government as counterpart share,” he said.

To another question, Mr Shah said there as a plan for lining of Rohri Main Canal from RD 616 to RD647, which has been approved on Dec3, 2014. He said his government had allocated Rs10bn on resolving the issues related to the lining of canals. He said it was a huge task and was benefiting the province hugely.

To a question by Shaharyar Khan Mahar, Mr Shah said the government had released funds amounting to Rs13.5m for the fuel and maintenance of generators of Shikarpur drainage division during the year 2014-15.

Published in Dawn, January 16th, 2018