LAHORE: Punjab is set to lose around 378,270 tonnes of agricultural produce a year for an indefinite period, as the federal government has apparently failed to secure a $200 million Asian Development Bank (ADB) loan for the second phase of the Greater Thal Canal (GTC) project.

The window for the ADB loan, approved in December last year, to build the Chaubara Branch Canal is closing this Monday (Dec 12) as federal authorities have not yet issued an authorisation letter for the project, a prerequisite for signing the loan agreement with the bank.

On Friday, Punjab Chief Minister Parvez Elahi accused Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif of crossing the “limits of enmity” with the province by creating hurdles in the way of the GTC, for which a separate water share is included in the 1991 Water Apportionment Accord.

Mr Elahi claimed that Punjab had removed all objections of Sindh with relevant data in a meeting of the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (Ecnec).

Elahi accuses Shehbaz of crossing ‘limits of enmity’ with province by creating hurdles in way of Greater Thal Canal project

Sources in the Punjab government, however, blame the elements from Sindh in the federal government for the “unexplained” delay in issuance of the authorisation letter for the project, approved by the Ecnec on March 16 this year. The Sindh Abadgar Board had also campaigned against the ADB-funded project.

A bank communique to the board, issued on Dec 2 and seen by Dawn, assures the latter in response to its letter written last year that “its (the board’s) concerns of lower riparians on enhancing the capacity of water utilisation by developing canal system of the Chaubara branch and the Jalalpur irrigation system” are being considered by the bank.

The ADB has recently denied the request of the Economic Affairs Division to extend the deadline for the loan signing until a final agreement on project implementation is reached. A senior Punjab cabinet member uses the “snake and ladder” analogy to explain the bad luck of the project being scuttled at the last moment when all preparations and prerequisites, except the signing of the loan agreement, had been completed.

“It is a sad moment for the country and its agriculture, not just Punjab’s,” he bemoans, adding that Rainee Canal for Sindh and Kachhi Canal for Balochistan had been developed while the Chashma Right Bank Canal project for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had been approved under the same 1991 Water Accord under which Punjab was sweating to develop the GTC.

Published in Dawn, December 10th, 2022