LAHORE, Jan 23: The Punjab Water Council on Tuesday demanded an inquiry into a breach in the Taunsa Barrage, saying the issue was surrounded by confusion and mystery and needed to be clarified.

At a press conference, Coordinator Hamid Malhi said the blame game going on between the contractor and the provincial irrigation department over the issue had blurred the vital facts including the cause and actual losses incurred due to the breach.

Flanked by other office-bearers of the council, Mr Malhi said the Mangla Dam was being depleted fast as the Indus River System Authority (Irsa) was trying to feed Sindh from it. He feared that it might increase shortages in Mangla command from earlier calculated 11 per cent to 20 per cent. The dam, which had 2.2 million acre-feet (MAF) water last year on Jan 21, has only 1.6maf now.

During the last 30 days, he said, the Irsa had “wasted” around one million acre-feet of Mangla dam water, and was still continuing.

He said such policies would hurt the agriculture in central Punjab beyond redemption because it could not be fed from Tarbela command area in case of water shortage. The Irsa could have easily fed Sindh from Chasma-Jehlum Link Canal by transferring water from Tarbela Dam, he said. But, Irsa had not done so and the farmers from central Punjab would have to pay the cost, he claimed.

Mr Farooq Bajwa of PWC, terming it gross mismanagement of water, said besides the water wastage caused by Taunsa breach, water loss downstream Kotri was also much more than the recommended by a panel of international experts. Moreover, he said, Mangla Dam water was also being consumed beyond reasonable limits. As a result, the Mangla command area would generally and central Punjab particularly be in for trouble if cold wave persisted to delay snow melt in the catchment area, he warned.

In order to avoid such a situation, the government must link all three rivers available to the country, said Amin Chattha of PWC. The link canals, he said, did not serve central and upper Punjab and dry river beds most of the year were destroying environment in Punjab as much as they had been doing downstream Kotri Barrage.

He suggested Indus, Jehlum and Chenab must be linked in upper reaches of the province to integrate water system in the entire country and create further options till more dams were constructed.

Squarely blaming the government for breach, Omer Sarfraz Cheema said it must plan ahead in order to meet such contingencies. The government’s wrong policies were creating misunderstandings among the federating units and their farmers, he deplored. —Staff Reporter