'Hold CCI meeting for Cholistan canal'
Several months of protests, engulfing every nook and corner of Sindh, have eventually compelled the provincial government to write a letter for convening the much delayed meeting of the Council of Common Interests (CCI) to discuss the burning issue of canals construction.
The Sindh Chief Secretary Asif Hyder Shah in a letter last week not only sought a meeting of the CCI but also called for 'nullifying' the Water Availability Certificate issued by the Indus River System Authority (IRSA) for Cholistan canal.
"The Sindh province has serious reservations about the grant of the certificate by IRSA ... as the matter doesn't fall under the purview of the Water Apportionment Accord, 1991, hence beyond the scope of IRSA," he wrote. "It has become a proven fact that currently all provinces are suffering acute water scarcity."
He pointed out that Sindh being the lower riparian province endures over 50 per cent water shortage during early Kharif sowing seasons. He referred to the data of IRSA itself which calculated a 16.6 per cent water shortfall across the country. "... data clearly indicates that sufficient water isn't available in the system, therefore, issuance of the certificate for new canals is unjustifiable."
The CS referred to para 14 (d) of the 1991 accord to contend that while a province can 'modify' the water share among existing canals, new canal systems can not be built. According to him, Punjab already possessed the irrigation network capacity to draw water from the Indus River beyond its authorised share.
The CS argued that the said allocations can never be ascertained as per the accord until and unless release of the river water towards the sea in downstream Kotri barrage are finalised.
As a consequence, the river downstream Kotri remains dry during most parts of the year, destroying the Indus delta. "The new canal system can't be designed on flood flows as these are uncertain," Shah contended. He compared water discharge figures from 1976 to 1998 and from 1999 to 2022 to point out that the average annual discharge in the downstream Kotri towards the sea reduced by 26.67 MAF.
The Executive Committee of the National Economic Council, in its meeting on February 7, 2024, had made it mandatory to seek approval from the CCI among the provinces for the irrigation projects being constructed under the Development of National Irrigation Network for Green Pakistan Initiative. "The decision of the IRSA for issuance of the NOC prior to the provinces' consensus on the project and approval by the CCI is against the spirit of the decision of ECNEC as well."
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