Sindh Abadgar Board opposes more canals on Indus

The Sindh Abadgar Board, a farmers lobbying group, has rejected the plan to construct six strategic canals on the Indus River while also announcing a protest movement against the project.

A meeting of the board, presided over by its senior vice president Mahmood Nawaz Shah on Sunday, said the government is pushing through the projects without conducting feasibility and environmental studies, seeking approval of the provinces and checking water availability.

The meeting, according to a statement, was briefed that the Central Development Working Party (CDWP) has approved construction of the Cholistan canal phase I in order to irrigate Cholistan desert.

The 176-kilometer-long canal will be built at the cost of Rs220 to irrigate 1.2 million acres of desert land. "The water availability certificate given by IRSA seems to lack credibility," the SAB underlined.

The certificate of water availability from April to September has been issued assuming floods during the months in question. The board complained that the authority did not consider the water scarcity problem in Sindh which prevails from March to May every year.

"IRSA didn't take into account the fact that surplus water, if available, starts from July during flood season and not from April." The board said rising temperatures and droughts are already affecting delta and lower riparians.

"The aquifers are fast depleting but the authority failed to reckon this situation as well."

According to the board, the PC-1 of the project says the Cholistan canal will be a perennial canal running for all 12 months but the IRSA issued certificate has approved water supply to that canal for only six months from April to September.

"The question arises that how will water be made available for that canal without depriving the lower riparians?"

The meeting expressed concern that the canal will be from flood water and by cutting shares of other canals. It wondered how Rasul barrage in Punjab would feed both Jalalpur and Cholistan canals as both of them depended on the same supply sources.