Call to revisit Indus River water accord

The Water Apportionment Accord of 1991 is a controversial agreement and should be abolished and a new accord should be prepared in consensus with all the provinces, speakers at a conference held at the Hyderabad Press Club said on Friday.

Water should be depoliticised and its supply should not be made subject to the electoral politics, said the speakers including public representatives, politicians, intellectuals and progressive farmers at the moot organised by the Sindh Agriculture Research Council (SARC).

The conference also called for providing solar tube wells to the farmers, improving coordination among the government departments concerned. Sindh Agriculture University's Prof Ismal Kumbhar, Sindh Chamber of Agriculture's Nabi Bux Sathio and other farmers' representatives also express their views.

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SARC Head Advocate Ali Palh said an artificial shortage of irrigation water has been created in Sindh and that the unjust water distribution is destroying crops of the ordinary farmers. He asked the Indus River System Authority (IRSA) to regularly upload details about the water discharge at various points on the Indus River as well as in the dams on its website. He also suggested that the IRSA should record videos of all its meeting in order to expose any conspiracy created on the sensitive water issue.

The opposition leader in the Sindh Assembly Haleem Adil Sheikh has blamed the Sindh government of Pakistan Peoples Party for playing the water card as the latter blames the centre and Punjab for stealing from its share in the Indus River.

Speaking at the water conference, he said: "Water should not be politicised. It shouldn't happen that the influential people get water beyond their share and for the poor and powerless people a water shortage is created."

Published in The Express Tribune, July 3^rd, 2021.