Back to square one after IRSA meeting?
The understanding reached on the water row during a meeting between the two CMs seems to have been a misunderstanding.
The understanding reached on the water sharing row between Sindh and Punjab on Tuesday during a meeting between the two chief ministers and the prime minister in Islamabad, seems, after all, to have been a misunderstanding, reports suggest.
A fresh debate on the topic was stirred less than 24 hours after the apparent resolution, following decisions taken during a meeting of the Indus River System Authority (Irsa) on Wednesday.
Irsa, which met under the chairmanship of new acting chief Raqeeb Khan, decided by a majority vote that the C-J link canal would be reopened after fulfilling the needs of Balochistan and Sindh. Punjab’s water share was also reduced.
It was decided that the discharge from Chashma Barrage would be increased up to 285,000 cusecs with the primary aim of meeting the water needs of Balochistan, which was not getting its full water quota of 13,000 cusecs.
Raqeeb Khan said that the additional water released from Chasma Barrage would take a maximum of three days to reach Sukker Barrage.
He said that, after recording 135,000 cusecs at Sukker Barrage, the C-J canal would be opened. This is where a fresh debate was stirred. While the two CMs left Islamabad apparently having resolved the issue, it seems the resolution was ambiguous. It was apparently decided that the talks on the C-J canal would resume after its immediate closure.
Irsa’s decisions seem to have surprised both Sindh and Punjab – for opposite reasons.
Punjab, it seems, thought that it would be opened immediately after the next Irsa meeting on its request, while Sindh thought it would not be opened at all for now.
“The decision to delay the opening of Chashma-Jehlum canal is more about water regulation than the water itself”, said Fazalullah Qureshi, an expert on water issues. He said the decision of discharging additional water from Chashma Barrage was designed at filling the North West Canal, which flows through Balochistan and Sindh. A water flow of less than 135,000 cusecs at Sukkar cannot fill the canal due to pound level flaws of the Sukkar Barrage.
He, however, was sceptical about the opening of the C-J canal even after three days, as the aforementioned process might take much more time than anticipated by the authority.
Irsa also decreased Punjab’s water share from 152,000 cusecs to 120,000 cusecs, a cut of over 21 per cent. Shafqat Mehmood, the IRSA member from Punjab – whose unilateral decision as acting chairman to open the C-J canal on July 6 kicked up the row in the first place – again demanded its immediate opening and sought an increase in Punjab’s share by 3.2 per cent or 5,000 cusecs. He pleaded that the canal’s closure would inflict losses in the southern belt where 3 million acres land will be adversely affected.
The IRSA official said that members from Sindh and the Centre and the Secretary Irrigation Balochistan opposed Punjab’s demand. The watchdog instead decided to increase Sindh’s share by 20 per cent – up to 240,000 cusecs per day from 200,000 cusecs.
However, over in Sindh, the chief minister’s response was swift and angered.
Addressing a press conference at the CM house on Wednesday, Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah said that some federal officials of Ministry of Water and Power are betraying the mutual decision to close the Chashma-Jhelum link canal made at a meeting held between him and his counterpart at the Prime Minister Secretariat.
During the meeting, he said, the acting chairman Irsa was found guilty of releasing water to the canal on July 6 without taking other members into confidence, after which it was decided that the canal would be closed.
He said that his Punjab counterpart had also promised him that action would be taken against the then acting chairman Irsa, who is Punjab’s representative in the body.
“It is our life and death problem, but instead of resolving the problem, federal government officials harass the Sindh member in Irsa,” he said, adding that Sindh’s Irsa member was being “pressurised.”
The CM further said that Sindh government not only wanted the removal of Shafqat Mehmood, the then Irsa chairman, from his post, but are also opposed to him being a member in the authority due to his bias.
In Punjab, chief minister Shahbaz Sharif, while addressing the provincial assembly, said that an understanding had been reached - adding that the opposition should end their protest ‘once the Chashma-Jhelum link canal is reopened.’
Senior Minister Raja Riaz had also told the media that the canal would be reopened on Wednesday.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 15th, 2010
A fresh debate on the topic was stirred less than 24 hours after the apparent resolution, following decisions taken during a meeting of the Indus River System Authority (Irsa) on Wednesday.
Irsa, which met under the chairmanship of new acting chief Raqeeb Khan, decided by a majority vote that the C-J link canal would be reopened after fulfilling the needs of Balochistan and Sindh. Punjab’s water share was also reduced.
It was decided that the discharge from Chashma Barrage would be increased up to 285,000 cusecs with the primary aim of meeting the water needs of Balochistan, which was not getting its full water quota of 13,000 cusecs.
Raqeeb Khan said that the additional water released from Chasma Barrage would take a maximum of three days to reach Sukker Barrage.
He said that, after recording 135,000 cusecs at Sukker Barrage, the C-J canal would be opened. This is where a fresh debate was stirred. While the two CMs left Islamabad apparently having resolved the issue, it seems the resolution was ambiguous. It was apparently decided that the talks on the C-J canal would resume after its immediate closure.
Irsa’s decisions seem to have surprised both Sindh and Punjab – for opposite reasons.
Punjab, it seems, thought that it would be opened immediately after the next Irsa meeting on its request, while Sindh thought it would not be opened at all for now.
“The decision to delay the opening of Chashma-Jehlum canal is more about water regulation than the water itself”, said Fazalullah Qureshi, an expert on water issues. He said the decision of discharging additional water from Chashma Barrage was designed at filling the North West Canal, which flows through Balochistan and Sindh. A water flow of less than 135,000 cusecs at Sukkar cannot fill the canal due to pound level flaws of the Sukkar Barrage.
He, however, was sceptical about the opening of the C-J canal even after three days, as the aforementioned process might take much more time than anticipated by the authority.
Irsa also decreased Punjab’s water share from 152,000 cusecs to 120,000 cusecs, a cut of over 21 per cent. Shafqat Mehmood, the IRSA member from Punjab – whose unilateral decision as acting chairman to open the C-J canal on July 6 kicked up the row in the first place – again demanded its immediate opening and sought an increase in Punjab’s share by 3.2 per cent or 5,000 cusecs. He pleaded that the canal’s closure would inflict losses in the southern belt where 3 million acres land will be adversely affected.
The IRSA official said that members from Sindh and the Centre and the Secretary Irrigation Balochistan opposed Punjab’s demand. The watchdog instead decided to increase Sindh’s share by 20 per cent – up to 240,000 cusecs per day from 200,000 cusecs.
However, over in Sindh, the chief minister’s response was swift and angered.
Addressing a press conference at the CM house on Wednesday, Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah said that some federal officials of Ministry of Water and Power are betraying the mutual decision to close the Chashma-Jhelum link canal made at a meeting held between him and his counterpart at the Prime Minister Secretariat.
During the meeting, he said, the acting chairman Irsa was found guilty of releasing water to the canal on July 6 without taking other members into confidence, after which it was decided that the canal would be closed.
He said that his Punjab counterpart had also promised him that action would be taken against the then acting chairman Irsa, who is Punjab’s representative in the body.
“It is our life and death problem, but instead of resolving the problem, federal government officials harass the Sindh member in Irsa,” he said, adding that Sindh’s Irsa member was being “pressurised.”
The CM further said that Sindh government not only wanted the removal of Shafqat Mehmood, the then Irsa chairman, from his post, but are also opposed to him being a member in the authority due to his bias.
In Punjab, chief minister Shahbaz Sharif, while addressing the provincial assembly, said that an understanding had been reached - adding that the opposition should end their protest ‘once the Chashma-Jhelum link canal is reopened.’
Senior Minister Raja Riaz had also told the media that the canal would be reopened on Wednesday.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 15th, 2010