The Indus River System Authority (Irsa) has accorded certification to the controversial Greater Thal Canal Project with a 3-2 majority, rejecting the objections of the Sindh member.

Earlier the executive committee of the national economic council (Ecnec) approved the Thal flood-water canal project at a cost of Rs30.5 billion. It was done without taking an NOC from Irsa, without obtaining the consent of Sindh which has very serious reservations about it and without discussing it in the Planning Commission. The most bizarre part of this controversy is that the work had already started on this controversial project without fulfilling all these constitutional requirements.

The sponsoring agency of this controversial project is the ministry of water and power, the executing agency is Wapda and the beneficiary is the government of Punjab, which will have the ultimate responsibility for its operations and maintenance. The project covers four districts i.e. Bhakker, Layyah, Khushab and Jhang - all in Punjab with a population is 570,000.

For this controversial canal, most of the water will come from the allocation under the Water Accord of 1991 and not from floods. Only supplemental water will come from floods between June 1 and September 1 of every year.

This recommendation was made under the water Accord of 1991 whereby Irsa can “make recommendation on the availability of water against the allocated areas of the provinces”. Thus the project is dependent on the share of water of Punjab. The other objection that Sindh raises is that the project is being implemented under the Water Accord of 1991, which the government of Punjab has failed to honour.

There have been protests, particularly in the province of Sindh. The Sindh government through a letter protested against the approval of the project and alleged bad faith in as much as the project document was received by it three days after it had been cleared by the central development working party (CDWP). The Sindh government received the minutes of the meeting of the CDWP two days after they had been considered by the Ecnec. Sindh received the project summary for the Ecnec on two days before its consideration.

Sindh has also expressed the apprehension that little or no water will be available for ‘escapage’ into the sea below Kotri, if it is used in the proposed canal; and the area will be destroyed with serious ecological, economic and social consequences. The mangroves in that area are a national heritage.

Sindh has objected to this canal also on the ground that there is already a serious shortage of water in the country. The construction of a huge canal would aggravate the shortage for the areas under cultivation. The province’s agriculture is on the brink of a disaster and famine-like conditions prevail. It has also been stated that the canal will take off from Chashma-Jhelum Link Canal (C-J Canal), which itself is a great burden on the Indus water system. Originally built to divert flood water, C-J Canal is actually being run by Punjab for the year round. It is, therefore, feared by Sindh that the new Thal Canal, will also be run for full year.

While highlighting the expected benefits after the completion of the project, the President said that the fortune of the area people would be changed. Unfortunately the President did not take into account the devastation the project is likely to cause to the coastal belt of Sindh. In Sindh, water for agriculture is considered almost a luxury now as the people face difficulty even in having adequate supply of drinking water.

The project has a long history. It has been under dispute since 1871 when the British rejected it for two reasons: (a) It would hit the vital interest of the lower riparian, i.e. Sindh; and (b) the land to be brought under cultivation is barren waste with no hope of producing anything.

Since the Kalabagh Dam has become a subject-matter of intense provincial controversy, taking the proposed canal from Chashma-Jhelum Link without Kalabagh, which would provide the required storage, is like putting the cart before the horse. Once the Canal is constructed and remains dry, it is assumed, the colossal expenditure on the construction of the Canal together with branches, the land acquisition and the dislocation involved in resettlement all will be in vain. It is for this reason that the people of Sindh suspect that this is a step towards building the Kalabagh dam.

Building of dams and barrages, of course, play a decisive role in agricultural and industrial progress. What is necessary is that detrimental effects should be offset by certain counter measures.

The key element what we ignored in diverting the Indus water, and are ignoring even now, is that we did not do anything to prevent imperative sea intrusion which was caused after the reduction of river inflows towards sea.

After the construction of Ghulam Mohammad Barrage, in 1951 the coastal areas of Sindh having a gentle slope (1:8000 to 1:10000) started to be encroached upon by the sea. The criminal negligence by the concerned authorities, notably Wapda, in tackling this issue has put the whole area on continuous degradation. In the absence of a suitable drainage system, which is direly required by this area hundreds of thousands of acres of otherwise fertile agricultural lands have turned into desert and the Indus delta has become a tragic symbol of poor planning and unbridled greed.

In such a grave scenario how could the people of Sindh, who are already facing a serious threat due to consistent water shortage, live without raising objection over the proposed construction of the Thal canal project, which would play havoc with its agriculture? They are of the view that when the Indus is already short of the required irrigation water, how can another project be started on the same river, which is the main source of water supply to the province.

Sindh government has decided to take the issue again for review in the Ecnec and Irsa has also reportedly written a letter to the relevant authorities reminding them that the work on the project could not be initiated without fulfilling all the constitutional requirements, particularly in view of the fact that one of the federating units had serious reservation about it. In addition Sindh has stressed that the project should be reverted to the CDWP for discussing the technical details of the project.

Punjab which has already crossed more than the saturation point of its allocated quota through the existing water system, the question haunting the smaller province is where from the excess water would come to feed the ongoing and proposed schemes?

The water crisis is an acute case of over-exploitation of the available water resource. The entire concept of Wapda, dominated by the Punjab experts reflects badly on their expertise. Any development of the arid zones of Punjab at the cost of the existing water system in Sindh is sheer madness. In this scenario, Punjab is harvesting bumper crops of cotton, wheat and sugar-cane. The figures released by the Punjab Agriculture Department for the last two years speak for themselves. Even during the current year, with a Rabi shortage of professed 65 per cent water-supplies, the sugar-cane crop in Punjab has registered 35 per cent increase and wheat area equalled that of bumper crop area of the last year.

The situation in Sindh is quite the opposite. Paddy, cotton, sugar-cane and wheat have registered a record low. The irrigation for the kharif 2001 was released in full by the end of June, while the month of October witnessed the rotation of canals. The kharif crop was matured through the rabi-share of water. Since the first of December, 2001 the water reaching through seepage to the Kotri barrage is not more than 3,000 cusecs, with no down-stream Kotri releases for the last three years

It is high time that before undertaking more work on the ongoing and the proposed projects a comprehensive reappraisal is conducted by some internationally renowned consultants. The study should evaluate the total national water resource, the capacity of the existing systems in the provinces, present usages and the feasibility of the shelved planned projects, if any. Pending this reappraisal a complete moratorium should be declared on the ongoing or the new proposed schemes.

In the meantime, instead of launching multi-billion mega water-reservoirs, lining schemes, checking the wastage through seepage, which by some estimates could save the 40 per cent of the water, by unlined big canals, distributaries and the water-courses, should be planned.

When General Musharaf took over in Oct 1999, in his first speech, he said that he would make every effort to remove the disharmony between the provinces. But now the people of Sindh feel that that was not being done. The people here also feel very disappointed at the attitude of the irrigation minister and the governor who should have resigned as a mark of protest. It is very ironic that when General Musharaf was asked for help in implementing the water sharing formula as per Water Accord 1991, his reply was that this was a very sensitive issue and must be left for the future parliament. One wonders, how come this change of policy.

This also reminds us of the previous National Finance Commission Award (NFC) which was passed a few days before the assembly was to take oath. We all understand that it was also done because Sindh which generates at least 70 per cent of the revenue for the federal kitty had asked for more share based on its revenue.

As for the Thal canal almost all the district councils of Sindh had passed resolutions against it. All the provincial assemblies since 1988 including the two in which the writer was also a member have passed resolutions against this controversial project.

The people here demand that this controversial project be stopped immediately,if not Sindh Government should take this issue to the Supreme court,which should form a bench with equal representation from all the four provinces in the absence of the Council of Common Interest.