Karachi, June 4: The water war between Sindh and Punjab provinces continues to play out, with the former saying that it faced a water crisis in the early Kharif season, despite ample storage available in the country’s reservoirs.
This claim resonated with Sindh’s earlier complaints to the Indus River System Authority (IRSA) over water shortage when it had asked the authority to halt the transfer of water from the Indus zone to the Jhelum-Chenab (JC) zone, saying the practice had put lower riparian Sindh at a disadvantage while questioning Punjab’s decision to operate link canals.
Countering this claim, Punjab said that Sindh had exceeded its Kharif share by up to 20pc, and accused the province of underreporting and shifting the blame. Sindh maintained its claim, stating that its viewpoint is backed by statistics, allocations, and the Water Apportionment Accord of 1991.
Back on May 8, IRSA curtailed the water storage for the early Kharif period till June 10th, from the initial 30% to 21% for Punjab and Sindh provinces, while allowing full indented supplies for Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa under an earlier approved exemption.
Sindh Irrigation Secretary Zarif Khero told the media that “Sindh utilised 3.560 million acre feet (MAF) from April 1 to May 20 against accord allocations of 4.645 MAF with 23pc shortage.”
Talking about claims of underreporting, Khero maintained that Punjab “always questioned” the assessments of “neutral bodies” in this regard.
“Recently, Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resources (PCRWR), IRSA members, and provincial representatives observed discharges in Taunsa downstream twice, leading to huge discrepancies between actual discharge and reported ones by Punjab,” he said.
An IRSA statement also noted the discrepancy, saying that it had sought clarification from Punjab over the recent discharge measurement taken by the PCRWR at Taunsa barrage.
But at the same time, it also pointed out that spot/surprise checks had revealed “underreporting at different barrages on Indus”, without specifying which province these occurred in. The statement said that a provincial response was awaited on the matter.
The Water Apportionment Accord is an agreement on the sharing of waters of the Indus Basin between the provinces of Pakistan. It is based largely upon the historical use of water by the provinces; Punjab 47%, Sindh 42% Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 8% and Baluchistan 3%.
The Accord was signed on 21 March 1991.
