LAHORE, April 23: The Punjab has expressed fears that Sindh, Balochistan and the NWFP, may succeed in blocking water certification for the Greater Thal canal on, what it called, “flimsy grounds.”

Sources in the provincial Irrigation Department said that after failing to convince President Pervez Musharraf on Sindh’s exclusive historical right on the Indus water and semantic crisis around the project, it has changed the tactics; quantify flood water supplies for other provinces before building the canal.

The Indus River System Authority (Irsa) which was convened to be sceduled to be held on Wednesday for the certification — a prerequisite for the final approval of the ECNEC (Executive Committee for National Economic Cooperation).

They said since the Greater Thal canal project enjoyed support of the President, an outright rejection might not be easy for the smaller provinces, but delaying tactics certainly are.

“Logically speaking, the certification process should be a mere formality because the Punjab had allocated water for the canal in 1991 from its share of additional flood supplies,” claims an employee of the Irsa. But this may not be the case; realising the weakness of their earlier stand, the smaller provinces now plan to go for the delaying tactics, he said and added that the Irsa, unfortunately, seemed to be listening. This penalty of having a participatory management approach to the purely technical issues.

The Punjab spared around 1.87 Million Acre Feet (MAF) out of its flood water share after the ‘91 Water Accord for the project. On average — drawn on the driest and the wettest years — around 38maf is being wasted to the sea. The Punjab got 37 per cent, or 14maf, of it, and so did Sindh. Rest 14 per cent went to the NWFP and 12 per cent to Balochistan. The province were free to use this quantity as they pleased. Now smaller provinces want the Irsa to quantify their flood supplies on the basis of this percentage and come up with the projects for their consumption, he revealed.

This exercise, if accepted by Irsa, could delay the Greater Thal canal till water supplies of other provinces are quantified or projects are finalised, says a former member water of Wapda. The delaying tactics may serve others better at the cost of the Punjab, he asserted. Even the quantifying process should not take long because calculations based on the historical average are already with the Irsa. Some projects for other provinces — the Katchi canal for Balochistan and the Ranee canal for Sindh — are already in the pipeline. But given the present tilted mind-set of the Irsa, the Punjab may suffer delay in canal project on one pretext or other, he feared.

The accord, claims a member of the Punjab Water Council, clearly states that no restriction would be placed on the provinces to undertake new projects within their agreed share. In presence of such a clear provision, how other provinces can object to a project that was conceived way back 1991 and mentioned in the accord. This smacks of negative politics to say the least, he asserted. Instead of developing one’s own plans and facilitate local farmers, objecting to development projects of others is a negative attitude. Sindh, Balochistan and the NWFP must come up with their own projects rather than blocking those finalised by others, he lamented.

Mr Qamar Zaman of Sindh Chambers of Farmers recently wrote a letter to the Irsa alleging that the Greater Thal canal project was included in the accord through backdoor, claims another member of the Punjab Water Council. But Mr Zaman failed to elaborate on his point. Backdoor or frontdoor, the project is there for the last ten years. Why Sindh has chosen to object now, he asked. This kind of attitude does not promote national harmony and should be avoided in good faith, he maintained.