HYDERABAD: Separate water supply systems should be put in place to address complaints of people living in urban and rural areas because both populations have different dimensions of their water-related problems.

This was suggested by Water and Sanitation Agency (Wasa) director finance Mohsin Jafri at a meeting of the advisory committee of the Sindh Irrigation and Drainage Authority (Sida) held on Wednesday to discuss the draft of Sindh’s water policy. Sida’s Managing Director (MD) Wali Mohammad Naich chaired the meeting.

He pointed out that before the water policy was finalised, necessary amendments should be made in water-related laws considering the present-day needs.

The Sida MD said that due to climate change and rising temperature, water availability was getting scarce. Considering those changes in weather patterns, Sindh government’s Planning and Development Board (P&DB), irrigation department and Sida had been working on a draft of water policy since 2017. Sida was leading the process and proposals were sought from different civil society organisations, growers’ bodies at workshops organised in different districts and those activities were still continuing, he said, adding that water stakeholders were part of the advisory committee.

Sida’s general manager (GM) for research Ehsan Leghari informed the meeting that the Sindh government had formed a steering committee to work on that objective. Sida’s consultations with the stakeholders and study would be shared with the Sindh government for water policy, he added.

GM (transition) Farzana Abbasi informed the meeting that the policy being drafted would help resolve all problems relating to the water sector. It would enable government to come up with a vision for the sector, she said, adding that the water policy would address issues of surface and groundwater reserves and ensure availability of water for consumers.

The meeting also approved proposals to conduct study on the socio-economic issues of Manchhar Lake by Mehran University of Engineering and Technology (MUET) and study by Sindh Agriculture University (SAU) Tandojam on modern technologies to store water for the agriculture sector.

Sindh Chamber of Agriculture general secretary Zahid Bhurgari said that sustainability of every policy was linked with funds’ availability. He said that many organisations, which were consumers of Sida, were not paying their bills, adding that there were consumers who got water from Sida for lesser tariff and then sold it at higher rates. He said the water policy should also resolve that matter.

Wasa’s director finance said that the authority perforce released drainage water into freshwater bodies and therefore it was necessary that a drain should be built parallel to canals to take waste water to the outskirts of the city and the same should be released into canals after treatment.

He said four water filtration plants were built, but Wasa did not have any budget for their recurring expenditure on maintenance.

Sindh Agriculture University’s Prof Dr Munir Mangrio said the university had already conducted a study and experiment on water conservation.

The meeting opposed construction of dam to close those sources which supply water to Manchhar Lake and release of effluent of Main Nara Valley Drain (MNVD) after its treatment into the lake. It said that all those hill torrents that served as freshwater sources of the lake should not be closed.

Officials of all related departme­nts, organisations and other stakeholders attended the meeting.

Published in Dawn, December 13th, 2019