Lower Riparians' Water Woes: A festering issue in Pakistan

 

 

 

 

John F. Kennedy rightly said, "Anyone who can solve the problems of water will be worthy of two Nobel prizes – one for peace and one for science.”Above alarming headlines suggest that water management is what Pakistan direly needs to address to promote National integration that is the backbone of Pakistani ideology.   

The repeated pattern of woes each year underscores the level of mismanagement that is responsible for the plight of people. A common practice by politicians of Pakistan is that raise the issue aggressively, make people realize that concrete steps are taken to mitigate the issue by formation of a investigation committee, get recommendations and never act. Sadly, issue as vital as water crisis is also dealt in such a way...

A committee formed....

        New government formed a joint committee of Parliamentarians and technical experts in May'22 to investigate into the matter of water theft, measurement and other possible causes of water issues between Sindh, Balochistan and Punjab. The committee worked in tandem with a team of Sindh government led by Minister for Irrigation.

 Accusations of water theft by farmers disrupting the share of downstream areas are not new, as is evident from below excerpt from 2013...

 

The report went on to say...

        
            Now, in the backdrop of this old issue the committee (shocked by losses of about 30,000 cusecs in between Taunsa and Guddu Barrages) investigated the issue anew.

 

The report of committee is a surprise....

 

So, the report basically stated that:

1.  What they observed was definitely a violation of allotted share but no one to be blamed as Punjab irrigation department released the required 69,000 Cusecs flow.
2. Theft but technically not a theft and, hence, cannot be acted upon.

By these two points the report leaves this issue in a stalemate.

Report ends by:

1. Zahid Junejo, Chairman IRSA/ Member Sindh, accusing the water regulator of failing to give due share of water to Sindh. 
2. The provincial government having conveyed its concerns at the highest level and hoping that the province would be given fair treatment. 

The end to latest efforts.....

What needs to be done?

As discussed issues such as these are threat to the federation and have disturbed the provincial harmony and national integration. They require sincere resolution efforts which are way beyond tall claims, clueless committee reports, raising concerns and accusations. There is a need to better utilize constitution empowered existing institutions like CCI and
IRSA. New rules should be established for the water management among provinces. 

 

So far ground water is neither taxed nor regulated. Urgently needed step is a need to regulate the ground water usage for irrigation and other purposes. Responsible authority to manage ground water is need of hour as leaving it to whims of people may have disastrous impacts as seen in discussed issue.