HYDERABAD: The Sindh irrigation department has again raised serious reservations over the construction of Jalalpur canal and urged Punjab to share information on how this canal will be fed as the province fears the channel will be supplied water from the Indus river at Sindh’s cost.

Therefore, work on the canal project be stopped till Sindh’s reservations were addressed, said a letter the irrigation department sent to the federal government in line with Section 8.1(g) of the Indus River System Authority (Irsa) Act, 1991. It was conveyed through the chairman of Planning and Development Board, the section which actually deals with all new projects.

The letter says: “Consider and make recommendations on the availability of water against allocated shares of the provinces within three months of the receipt of fully substantiated water accounts for all new water projects for the assistance of the Executive Committee of National Economic Council (Ecnec)”.

The letter was sent on the directive of Sindh Minister for Irrigation Jam Khan Shoro about the under-construction canal project launched in 2017. Punjab has not yet responded to Sindh’s reservations.

“We fear Punjab will divert water from Indus river over and above its share for this new canal at our cost. Our contention is, that since water flows requirements of all canals of Pakistan have been mentioned in the Water Apportionment Accord, 1991, the point how this particular canal will be fed must be explained in clear terms,” said an officer of irrigation department on condition of anonymity on phone from Karachi.

The letter stated that Sindh had submitted its comments on the canal’s project cost-I (PC-I) on Dec 8, 2017, requesting that Sindh be provided 10-daily water requirement of the project for further comments, which were not available in the PC-I.

It said that Punjab should clarify which canal system’s water flows would be diverted for the Jalalpur project. “Water should not be provided to the project under para-4 of water accord 1991 until and unless downstream Kotri barrage flows are ensured as per para-7 [of the accord],” said the letter.

It said that Irsa had issued a certificate under para-8 and not under para-14-D of the accord. “Punjab should ensure that water was not transferred from the Indus through link canals in order to compensate the water provided to this new project from Rasul barrage,” said the letter.

The Sindh irrigation department said that without responding to Sindh’s apprehensions work on the project kept going on. Sindh has serious reservations on the execution of the project which may give rise to pilferage and misreporting in the allocated withdrawal at upstream Sindh.

Mr Shoro told Dawn that the canal project was raised Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah’s meeting with Federal Minister for Water Resources Chaudhry Moonis Illahi on Oct 11.

“We showed a video of Punjab Irrigation Minister Mohsin Leghari in our meeting with the federal minister in which Mr Leghari was saying the new canal would bring around 160,000 acres under cultivation in Punjab,” he said.

Mr Leghari also mentioned the Greater Thal Canal Phase-II project which was to irrigate 350,000 acres, he said and added: “Both these points had been raised before the federal water resources minister”.

According to Mr Shoro, development of new command area means utilisation of more water flows. “Unless we are told how Punjab is going to manage water flows for this canal, we [Sindh] will be apprehensive of the fact that it is being done at the cost of our command area’s requirements as well as requirement of Kotri barrage downstream flows,” he argued.

This year Sindh’s barrages, except for a brief period, experienced severe water shortage, making water unavailable for rice crop in upper Sindh which was fed by Guddu and Sukkur barrages. Kotri barrage also faced water shortage during peak of Kharif season.

“The Jalalpur canal project is being built at Rasul barrage Mangla downstream,” said an irrigation expert. Punjab should manage the new project within the available flows that had been worked out at a 10-daily basis (average water flows reflected in the water accord for each month’s first, second and third 10 days for every barrage of the country) for all canals emanating from different barrages.

Sindh has 14 main canals off-taking from its three barrages. The province always raises questions over the three-tier formula for water distribution whenever it applied by Irsa on grounds that it is not part of the accord and it puts Sindh at great disadvantage.

Sindh has also objections over operation of the Taunsa-Panjnad and Chashma-Jehlum link canals which, the province believes, lift water from Indus and divert it to the Mangla zone without first meeting water requirements of Sindh.

The province has asked Irsa time and again in writing and in face to face meetings to stop supplying water to the two link canals before Sindh’s requirements are met, considering the fact that the two channels are flood canals.

Published in Dawn, October 28th, 2021