• Water underneath Sutlej can irrigate entire desert region, says Dr Hassan Abbas
• Zulfikar Jr blames PPP, ‘N’ League for complicity in approving controversial scheme

KARACHI: Hydrology and water resources experts, rights activists and environmentalists have opposed the plan to build canals on the Indus River and suggested alternative solutions to ensure that Pakistan’s agriculture sector gets modernised without trampling on farmers’ rights and harming the natural flow of Indus and its ecology.

They were speaking at a seminar, “The Water Crises and Six Canals Dispute: Need for Equitable and Effective Solutions”, organised by the Concerned Citizens Alliance (CCA) at the Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) House here on Wednesday. The event was moderated by member CCA Tahseen Fatima.

Speaking on the occasion, hydrology and water resources expert Dr Hassan Abbas said that at present it was important to see how Pakistan could be in a win-win situation by ensuring the “Green Pakistan Initiative” without impacting the Indus River and famers of Sindh, particularly the lower riparian regions.

“First it needs to be clearly understood whether corporate farming can be successfully and feasibly done in a desert.”

He said the amount of sand and mud is quite a lot in the Indus and, therefore, the canals water would require desilting on a large scale and large ponds would also be needed for that. However, Dr Abbas added the desilting capacity of such a level was very difficult to ensure.

Similarly, he spoke of a number of other technical problems in the canals project, which, he believed, make the entire plan unfeasible and unworkable, like, for example land levelling, left-out silt, etc.

Therefore, he suggested an alternative solution based on a study conducted by some Pakistani and American experts, which recommended that instead of canals, the river bank filtration system with “horizontal collector wells” should be used to transport water to Cholistan.

That, he said, should be done through pipelines.

Dr Abbas said Sutlej River has a huge quantity of reserve water under its bed which is enough to irrigate entire Cholistan. It is pertinent to mention here that Sutlej is the nearest river to the Cholistan region.

“Moreover, that scheme would cost half the money compared to the expenses of canals and the duration would also be very less along with multiple other benefits, which are not there in the canals project.” Doing that would lead to a win-win situation, the water expert added.

Dr Abbas stressed that the country needed such modern agriculture plans, not the centuries-old concepts of making more canals.

‘Not issue of Sindhi nationalism alone’

Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Junior, social and political activist and grandson of former prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, said the issue of six canals is not only an issue of Sindhi nationalism.

“It is rather an issue of patriotism as it is a problem affecting the whole country. The fight for the river is the fight for the rights of the poor,” he added.

He also questioned the authority of the governments to control and divert the natural flow and order of rivers.

Moreover, Mr Bhutto said the Pakistan Peoples Party and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz were complicit in the approval of six canals project.

He said he rejected the very idea of farming for profit. “Corporate farming,” he added, “has not benefited the country in any significant way.”

He believed that there should rather be “cooperative farming” among farmers.

Civil rights lawyer Shahab Usto said people in the country have lost hope in the government as well as the judiciary and that there is insecurity among the public that their rights are being usurped.

He said the permission of the Council of Common Interests (CCI) was not taken for the approval of the six canals despite the fact that it was the relevant body.

Instead, authorities went out of the way and approved the plan, a method which is totally unconstitutional and illegal, Mr Usto added.

He said the plan is a “recipe for disaster” and would lead to severe consequences not only for the farmers of Sindh but also for those of Punjab while the citizens of Karachi would also be affected by water scarcity in the near future.

Similarly, social activist and environmentalist Afia Salam termed the plan illegal and unconstitutional, saying that it would badly impact the lower riparian regions of Sindh and lead to a water crisis, which is already there in many parts of the province and is forcing people to move to urban settlements.

Moreover, she said the canals project would also affect the people of Cholistan, who have now realised the problem and are raising their concerns.

Ms Salam also said that the ecology of the Indus will also be affected by such plans, which would in turn affect the lives of the people.

Published in Dawn, March 20th, 2025