Irrigation decisions: Punjab reneges on sharing water supplies with Sindh

Decision taken after learning Mangla Dam is about to hit ‘dead level’.

ISLAMABAD:

Punjab’s new-found generosity towards Sindh lasted less than 72 hours as Lahore sought on Monday to reverse its decision to share its water supply with Sindh for the downstream province’s cotton-growing season.

Punjab informed the Indus River System Authority (Irsa) – the country’s water management agency – that it would prefer to store its water rather than sharing it with Sindh. The decision was made after the Punjab government discovered that water in the Mangla Dam would reach the dead level of 1,050 feet on April 23.

On Friday, Punjab stunned observers by announcing its willingness to share half its water with Sindh for its cotton growing season in April in exchange for an agreement that Punjab’s water supply would be increased during the upstream province’s cotton growing season in May.

However, that plan relied on supplying water to Sindh through the Mangla Dam, which is now getting close to its ‘dead level’, the level at which water flows from a dam stop.

Water at Mangla is currently at the 1,084 feet level, which has prompted Irsa to reduce flows from the dam to 5,000 cubic feet per second (cusecs).  Tarbela Dam has already hit its dead level of 1,378 feet, which means that water flows from the largest dam in the country have stopped.

The decision might further fuel the controversy over the allocation of provincial natural resources, a battle in which Sindh and Punjab are already pitted against each other. Punjab has complained that Sindh is not providing sufficient gas which has brought industrial activity in the northern province to a grinding halt.

Sources say the Punjab chief minister wanted a settlement with Sindh on the gas issue. However, the recent reversal of its previously generous position may damage the back-channel negotiations between Lahore and Karachi.

The chief minister reportedly came down hard on the Punjab irrigation department for surrendering water to Sindh at a time when cotton sowing in Punjab was about to commence and river flows were at very low level due to the coldest April in 30 years.

Irsa spokesman Khalid Rana said the authority has not received a written review request from Punjab. He said Irsa would compensate Punjab through water sharing even after the Mangla reaches the dead level. Rana said they hoped that the Mangla reservoir may not drop to the dead level. Irsa expects the weather to get warmer after April 17 which might speed up the melting of the glaciers.

Sources say that Irsa is now scrambling to find a solution to a problem that they thought they had already solved. Irsa officials have suggested giving 5,000 cusecs of water to Sindh from the Kabul River in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. However, a decision on the matter was postponed because the Balochistan representative said they would need to consult with Quetta before being able to give the province’s opinion.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 12^th, 2011.