KARACHI: Establishing an independent committee of experts to calculate the availability of water, building reservoirs and installing a telemetry system to remove doubts about water theft are some of the recommendations made by a body appointed by the prime minister to address growing discord among the federating units in view of the water crisis.

The body — led by Attorney General of Pakistan Anwar Mansoor Khan — in its report said the problem was that when the water accord was signed in 1991, the total available water was over 102MAF (million acre feet). It was expected that the water would be distributed on the presumed capacity of over 114MAF. The body observed that perhaps, in a way, it was a ‘conscious target’ for the federation to enhance storage capacity.

“Unfortunately, no real effort was made to enhance storage capacity and no new large storage facilities or reservoirs have been built since 1991,” observed the report obtained by Dawn.

In fact, the overall distributable volume of water had gone below 102MAF due to silting of major reservoirs.

After analysing different perspectives of Sindh and Punjab, the AG’s report observed that Sindh’s claim that water be apportioned according to para 2 of the water accord was ‘correct in law’.

While Punjab’s contention was based on a correct assessment of the ‘factual position’ but it ignored specific provisions of the water accord.

It was this ‘very clash of law and logic’ which led to creation of this body to address the issue.

It was pointed out that the rapidly increasing population was placing an extraordinary burden on all resources but none more so than water. The body warned that unless handled prudently, the water issue could lead to political discord and ecological degradation.

Inflexible attitude

Referring to the fact that all provinces agreed that the sanctity of the water accord should be maintained, the body noted that controversy persisted between Punjab and Sindh over the issue of ‘sharing of water during shortages’ and regretted that the both provinces were ‘inflexibly stick’ to their respective stance.

Members of the body were of the view that the real problem impeding the implementation of the 1991 water accord lies on the reading of para 2 and para 14(a) and (b) where para 2 in fact was on the presumption that the available water in the accord was 114.35MAF and the calculations in the said para 2 was made on assumption.

It may, however, be stated that the said assumption in para 2 had not been achieved so far.

Consequently, Punjab maintained that till the availability of 114.35MAF, the available water should be distributed among provinces on the basis of 1977-82 historic uses (102.72MAF) as per para 14(b) of the accord.

On the other hand, Sindh was of the view that the distribution of water among provinces, under all circumstances, must take place as per para 2 read with para 14(a) and (b) of the accord and with the CCI decision dated Sept 19, 1991 where the ‘10-day average system-wise allocation was determined’, which has since become a part of it (water accord).

Sindh further disputed that there was ‘much shortage of water’ and maintained that downstream low availability of water was mainly ‘due to water losses and theft upstream’.

As to KP and Balochistan, Punjab was of the view that those two provinces should be exempted from any reduction in their share of water.

Meanwhile, water was being distributed as per the ‘three tier formula’ adopted by the Indus River System Authority (Irsa).

The report believed that this formula conformed to Punjab’s interpretation of the accord but it was opposed by Sindh thus, Irsa’s decision was ‘biased’.

In view of contentious stances of both Punjab and Sindh about distribution of water, the AG-led report recommended to determine the volume of water actually available. It added that the 10-day uses had been determined by the CCI on Sept 16, 1991 and the distribution should be on that basis whether the water was short or surplus.

“This task of calculating the actual available water may be assigned to an independent body consisting of expert hydrologists,” it said.

The committee said that in view of the depleting storage capacity of existing dams owing to sedimentation, construction of more dams was essential.

Quoting experts, the body said that to ensure required ‘future storage’ capacity, one mega dam needed to be added every 10 years. In addition, smaller storage facilities should be examined and built.

It also called for installing the telemetry system for the purpose of calculating the flow and volume of water at each stage, which would also remove the doubts being created that there is theft of water.

Published in Dawn, December 27th, 2019