HYDERABAD: Sindh’s Assembly’s Public Accounts Committee has asked Sindh’s Chief Secretary to finalise hiring of consultants for the execution of RBOD-II considering its benefits for the province, and called for setting up an effluent treatment plant at Manchhar Lake.

The PAC, which met at the assembly’s committee room on Monday with its head Nisar Ahmed Khuhro in the chair, said the plant be built at zero point of the lake’s upstream to prevent untreated effluent coming from Balochistan from falling into the fresh water body.

Khuhro held irrigation department’s officers responsible for negligence in completing the project, which was launched by Musharraf regime in 2001 at a cost of Rs14 billion.

The 273km long drain (RBOD-II) is to carry effluent from Jamshoro’s Sehwan area to Gharo creek while bypassing Manchhar Lake. It was designed to save this freshwater lake from contamination, which had destroyed its biodiversity.

The officials said that work on RBOD-II remained suspended since 2015 although it was to be completed in 2005. The project’s PC-I was revised at Rs29.217bn against Rs14bn actual cost, they said, adding with the revised cost it was to be completed in 2010. The PC-I was revised again at Rs61.985bn and it was then slated to be competed in 2019.

Committee calls for setting up plant to treat Balochistan’s effluent before it falls into Manchhar Lake

RBOD-II Superintending Engineer Waheed Nizamani informed the PAC that during 2001-2017, out of Rs61.985bn, Rs44bn were released by federal government and of this amount Rs40bn had already been spent. The Sindh irrigation department had Rs3.5bn fund available.

Khuhro asked him why the project remained incomplete despite having Rs3.5bn funds. Nizamani said that the record had been handed over to the department by National Accountability Bureau and Anti-Corruption Establishment. Three firms were shortlisted in 2022 and of them National Development Consultants (NDC) was finalised as consultants but the then secretary withdrew the work order issued in favour of NDC, he said.

He said the work remained suspended due to NAB and ACE probes. In response to Khuhro’s query he said he was unaware of the reasons leading to revocation of NDC’s order by the secretary. The work would resume once consultants had been hired with the approval of the project steering committee, he said.

GM South (Wapda) Naeem Qadir Mangi, however, clarified that Wapda had nothing to do with RBOD-II as the authority was entrusted with execution of RBOD-I & III.

He said that Balochistan’s component of RBOD-I had already been handed over to that province and the fundingfor RBOD-II had been released directly to Sindh government through Ministry of Water Resources.

He, however, called for expediting work on PC-I for damage to RBOD-I & III from 2022 flood.

The PAC chairman termed the RBOD-II beneficial for Sindh and said therefore, work should resume on it because the further it was delayed the more its cost would escalate.

He pointed out to negligence of irrigation department’s officials as work remained suspended on the project since 2015.

Khuhro was of the view that the department should resume the work with available funds of Rs3.5bn and then the matter would be taken up with the federal ministry for the release of the remaining funds.

He, therefore, asked the CS to ensure hiring of consultants with the approval of the steering committee and directed that the effluent treatment plant should be set up at zero point of the lake’s upstream so that the untreated effluent coming from Balochistan should not fall into the lake.

Secretary irrigation opposes RBOD-II

At the PAC’s meeting held on Jan 6, 2025, NAB officials had clarified that there were no restraining orders on resumption of work on the project as the land record of the project had already been handed over to DCs of Jamshoro and Thatta districts.

Secretary Irrigation Zarif Khero, who attended the meeting, had termed the RBOD-II as unviable for Sindh despite expenditures of Rs40bn. If RBOD-II was executed as per its current design its effluent would contaminate sea while the project would not offer any support in floods, he contended.

He said its PC-I would again be revised for the third time that might escalate its cost to Rs400bn, hence the matter be taken up with Wapda and federal government.

Secretary Finance Fayyaz Jatoi had told the Jan 6 meeting the federal government’s share in the project was Rs54.98bn while Sindh’s share stood at Rs7bn and the latter had released Rs4bn while the federal government had released Rs5bn in 2019.

Nizamani explained while answering the chair’s question with regard to secretary irrigation’s said contention that the riverbed would not be used for constructing the RBOD-II though the project would run close to the river.

Sindh’s position on RBOD-II in past

The project’s steering committee in its May 2021 meeting, chaired by then CS Mumtaz Ali Shah, decided to hand over RBOD-II to Wapda. A summary was moved by present irrigation minister Jam Khan Shoro later to chief minister pending final decision.

Shoro had commented in a May 2021 meeting that the RBOD-II was the federal government’s “brainchild” therefore it should take it over. Wapda, on the other hand, had been pressing the province to take over RBOD-I & III.

At a meeting of National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Water Resources held on May 12, 2022, Shoro recorded the province’s reservations over RBOD-II’s alignment and said Sindh would not take over RBOD-I & III till the RBOD-II had been completed. Secretary Irrigation Khero had insisted “Wapda should [be asked to] run the three drains for one flood season after RBOD-II’s completion and then its handover be discussed [with the Sindh]”.

Subsequently, interim irrigation minister Eshwar Lal had proposed in 2023 handover of RBOD-II to Frontier Works Organisation but then caretaker chief minister Maqbool Baqir opposed the proposal as he wanted ‘some reasoning’ for taking such a decision.

Special Secretary Irrigation Sajid Bhutto and other officers also attended the meeting.

Published in Dawn, August 20th, 2025