| Water
Crisis: Special Report
Water scarcity; reasons, ramifications, remedies
Water
Shortage to get extreme by 2013
Water Crisis cause,
consequence and cure.
Government will establish drought relief
Centers
Water shortage to effect wheat
in next rabi season.
Water
shortage caused losses to Sindh
Water
Shortage: mass exodus feared form Cholistan
40
per cent shortfall in water supply during the early
kharif
Water
shortage and crops of ongoing kharif season
Experts
reject Sindh proposal on dams
More
water reservoirs only way out: experts
The top water experts have called for more reservoirs besides effectively conserving water by adopting modern agriculture methods, fearing that the present crisis could have disastrous impact on economy.
The water experts sounded this warning at a seminar on “ Water Crisis in Pakistan” organized by The Nation here at Hameed Nizami Hall.
Former Finance Minister Dr Mubashar Hassan, provincial Agriculture Minister Khurshid Zaman Qureshi, General Manager (Water) Wapda Ahmad Khan Bhatti, provincial Advisor for Water Management Ch Mazhar Ali, ex- Chairman Wapda Engr Shahnawaz Khan, Consultant provincial Irrigation and Power Department M H Siddiqui, former Minister and senior agriculture expert Ch Sultan Ali, ex-Chairman Wapda Gen (Retd) Ghulam Safdar Butt, former Additional Secretary Dr Yaqoob Bhatti, Brig (Retd) Khurshid Ghias, Barkat Ali Lone and Sultan Ali Barq spoke on the occasion.
They expressed various aspects of water crisis. Most of them of the views that if the issue lingered on, the country could land into a food crisis especially in view of its impact on agriculture sector. The experts strongly held that only answer to this problem was building more reservoirs.
Addressing on the occasion, former Finance Minister Dr Mubashar Hassan called for provincial autonomy to the provinces saying that the water disputes among the provinces would be addressed in a better manner after the autonomy.
Dr Mubashar also emphasized that organisations like Wapda, Railways should be abolished, etc adding these institutions contributed heavily to the prevalent economic slump, inflicting irreparable loss to the country. “Wapda alone wasted four billion dollars during the last 40 years,” he noted.
He said that Wapda has no right to take decision about the construction of dams in remote areas like Punjgur or raising the Mangla height as these decisions should be taken by the people of respective area. He said that such issues could only be resolved through a political approach.
“In fact we have abundance of water, but unfortunately the management is not correct. We are lacking required political structure to finalise the plans of water conservation”, ex-minister said.
Referring to Kalabagh Dam, Dr Mubashar said that Cabinet meeting held on November, 6 1984 could not approve the construction of Kalabagh Dam despite the fact that there was military rule in the country and despite less differences among the provinces.
Can we not compromise on the national integrity as far as construction of dam is concerned, he questioned and said the efforts by the government to implement its decision by force would not be a viable solution to this problem. He added that the ability of the government to implement its decisions by force has been undermined. He urged upon the government to trust the masses in this connection.
Former Minister proposed to hold a political gathering with the aim to discuss the technical side of the said issues by the representatives of all provinces.
“Keeping in view the water crisis, we should give preference to the industrial sector while the required agriculture commodities could be imported from other countries,” he said while adding “we have the ability to produce more crops”.
He strongly criticised the bureaucracy saying that the bureaucracy had always portrayed a positive picture before successive governments including prime ministers and military rulers, which badly affected the country. He stressed that there should be some standards to check the opinion of the bureaucracy.
Provincial Minister for Agriculture and Cooperative, Khurshid Zaman Qureshi said that we would have not to import wheat this year despite prediction of low production of the crop. He said that keeping in view the water paucity, we should promote water conservation techniques among the farmers besides reviewing the present cropping pattern.
He said that it was not wise that we continue to waste water by sowing rice and other such crops on large scale. However, he clarified, there would be no compromise on the issue of food security. Qureshi said that Water crisis could affect the crops of forthcoming kharif season as there may be least water available for sowing the crops. The minister strongly recommended to construct small as well as large dams so that water availability could be ensured during the drought conditions.
Provincial Advisor for Water Management Ch Mazhar Ali emphasized to construct water reservoirs saying that despite opposition, many dams have been constructed in countries including India, China and Turkey. We have to sacrifice something, if we want to be a prosperous nation, he said.
He was of the solid opinion that there was no alternative to big dams, saying that the water crisis could only be averted to built large reservoirs. Small dams are useful for meeting the needs of respective area, he said.
General Manager Planning (Water) Wapda Ahmad Khan Bhatti said that the country was facing acute shortage of water. Quoting the figures, he said that on Saturday, (March 17) there were inflow of 13,900 cusecs at Tarbela against average 27,400 cusecs of 17 March.
Realising the water scarcity, Wapda has already started work on various projects including drilling at Basha Dam site, raising of Mangla Dam, construction of Gomal and Bangol Dam. GM Wapda said that the country could conserve water with constantly expanding its storage capacity. He said that work of other projects would start following allocation of loans by the government.
ex-Chairman Wapda Engr Shahnawaz Khan, who could not attend the function due to his illness, stated in a message that it is a pity that such water crisis occurred in a country blessed by Allah with large river generally flowing with supplies much above our requirements, high mountains with suitable storage sites and with talented professionals who have knowledge and experience to plan, investigate, design and construct large Hydralic Structures.
To ensure constant water supply following the construction of Tarbela and Mangla Dams, he viewed, we need a consistent supply of irrigated water as time passed by the amount of water available from these storages started reducing on account of deposition of sediments. Although two good sites were available for this purpose, we concentrated on one site only i.e., Kalabagh and it turned out to be controversial, he said. The facts and figures presented by Wapda’s consultants on this project were bound to invite serious opposition from NWFP. Later, he said, on Wapda modified the design but by that time the damage had been done.
He said that he proposed to construct Basha Dam as far back as December 1991 so that we could go ahead with the project if a consensus on Kalabagh Dam could not be reached amongst all the provinces. However, the suggestion was ignored. He hailed the present government’s decision to construct Basha Dam. He also recommend to start planning and investigation of other Dam in the upper limb of Indus River also.
Senior Water Expert and Consultant provincial Irrigation and Power Department, M H Siddiqui threw light on the historical background of water distribution among the provinces, especially between Punjab and Sindh. He said that controversy on the water distribution was started back in 1921. He said that the dispute was later resolved in 1945 under Sindh Punjab Draft Agreement following long deliberations by two separate commissions, constituted by the then Indian government of Sub Continent.
Later, after creation of Pakistan, the issue surfaced again in the 1970s. However, the Water Accord of 1991 helped reducing the differences. He expressed the hope that recent difference of opinion on interpretation of section 14 of 1991 Water Accord would be resolved soon. “Keeping in view the annual loss of 38 million acre feet (MAF) water into sea, we should focus to construct maximum storage facilities”.
Ex-Chairman Wapda, Gen (Retd) Ghulam Safdar Butt said that the country should pay heed to the soaring water scarcity in the country as it could badly affect every sector of the economy. He strongly criticised the views of Dr Mubahsar, saying that Pakistan should not depend on other country for catering domestic food requirements. We should keep in mind the miserable condition of hungry children of Iraq and Eritria,” he opined.
Stressing to take radical steps for overcoming the adverse affects of water shortage, he said that work on all feasible projects should be started immediately. He was of firm opinion that we should revise our cropping pattern by giving preference to oilseed and sugarbeet cultivation.
Former Minister and senior agriculture expert Ch Sultan Ali said that in order to ensure food security the government should focus more on promoting the agriculture sector. He blatantly criticized the views of former Finance Minister, Dr Mubashar regarding agriculture sector saying that he himself was responsible for the deteriorating economic situation of the country in mid seventies. “The decision of then Finance Minister about 170 per cent devaluation of greenback led the country to recession,” he said.
He said that due to excessive use of water, problems of water logging and salinity have occurred in Sindh. But, Sultan Ali said some elements in Sindh have been constantly alleging that Punjab was involved in water theft. He said that the landlords of Sindh only raised the water theft issue with the aim to cover up their own acts of water theft.
“Punjab with more cultivable land is being supplied much lesser water as compared to the share of other provinces. It is not fair to allocate less water to Punjab which is producing much greater volume of major crops including wheat, rice and cotton, “Ch Sultan said.
He said that Kalabagh Dam issue was first distorted by Ishaq Khan when he proposed General Ayub Khan to built Tarbela Dam first against the Kalabagh Dam.
Brig (Retd) Khurshid Ghias said that we should plan medium as well as short and long term projects for overcoming the soaring water shortage. Sultan Ali Barq expressed his serious concern over the construction of dam on river Ravi by India saying that the move would affect the water inflow in the river, creating problems for the farmers. Dr Atta-ur-Rehman Tariq of University of Engineering and Technology, Lahore said that due to non-issuance of report about water distribution among the provinces by IRSA, confusions and differences have been created on water issue. Therefore, he said, IRSA should issue daily report of water distribution.
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