Water distribution row resolved?

One can only hope that the resolution reached July 13 on the simmering dispute between Punjab and the rest of the provinces on the intra-provincial distribution of water will be long-lasting and restore Irsa’s system of apportionment to working order. Prior to this, Irsa had more or less been reduced to a non-functioning entity and this was severely hampering the implementation of the 1991 water accord. Of course, the manner in which the recent chaos has ensued means that the already-present trust deficit between Punjab and the smaller provinces must have widened further — and will be bridged only if significant confidence building measures are adopted post-resolution. The most obvious would be to once again use the telemetry system which monitors and checks the exact distribution of water to the provinces through modern technology. Perhaps, had it been functional, the present disruption would not have materialised.

Whatever the quantum of intervention, the government needs to understand that the smaller provinces, especially those which have irrigated lands at the tail-end of the canals system have grievances which are by and large valid. For instance, it is Sindh which suffers from the seawater encroaching into the land and rendering non-cultivable large tracts of land in one of its districts. And this happens because by the time the Indus reaches the sea its flow has considerably reduced thanks to diversion of its waters upstream. Also, what needs to be checked is water theft — in particular in southern Punjab and northern Sindh. This is almost always done by those from the landed elite and many, or their relations, sit in the provincial and/or national assemblies and hence no action is ever taken against them. This theft also needs to stop because it ultimately exacerbates the water distribution quarrel.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 14^th, 2010.