The country’s fate hinges on the faulty opinion of the assembly members
LAHORE: On the subject of the upper and lower riparians, the Indo-Pak situation cannot be compared with the Punjab-Sindh situation. India has full control of the eastern rivers and partial control of the western rivers subject to the restrictions placed on it by the Indus Waters Treaty, but India’s status as the upper riparian remains untouched.
However, under the Water Apportionment Accord of 1991, provinces can only put up 10 day indents of their requirements to the Indus River System Authority, which instructs Wapda to release water from the dams and the barrages accordingly. The provinces have no direct control over the supply to their canals.
After the Water Accord, the concept of upper or lower riparian does not exist. Sindh needs to come out of the pre-Water Accord era. After all, it is under the Water Accord that Sindh’s share has been increased in all future dams.
We need to find out the objections of the three assemblies which have passed resolutions against Kalabagh Dam. What if their main objection is that the dam will deplete the Indus River and Sindh will not get its due share of water, because, in their opinion, this is what Mangla and Tarbela dams have done?
The verifiable fact is that the two dams increased withdrawal in Sindh canals from the pre-Mangla 35.6 million acre-feet (maf) to the post-Tarbela 44.5 maf, an increase of 8.9 maf with which Sindh cultivated an additional two million acres.
Why the Indus still looks depleted is because the 14 canals on the three barrages in Sindh are consuming all the available water to meet the increased demand for irrigation water to feed a population which had grown, countrywide, from 80,000,000 to 20,000,000 in the 40 years since Tarbela Dam was commissioned. The country’s fate hinges on the faulty opinion of the assembly members.
Engr Khurshid Anwer
Published in The Express Tribune, October 5th, 2016.
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