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Thal canal project okayed
ISLAMABAD, Feb 28: The
controversial Thal Flood Water Canal project was approved by
the Executive Committee of National Economic Council (Ecnec),
following a heated debate between the officials of Sindh and
the Water and Power Development Authority
(WAPDA) here on Thursday, Dawn reliably learnt.
During the arguments between WAPDA and Sindh officials it
transpired that the authority had already started work on the
project without the approval of the competent authority, an
official present at the meeting said.
WAPDA official, explaining the authority's point of view,
recalled that the project had been inaugurated by President
Gen Pervez Musharraf on Aug 17, soon after unfolding his
economic development plan. WAPDA official said the authority
had already completed work on a stretch of five kilometres and
had already spent substantial amount of funds.
The Sindh government maintained that WAPDA should have waited
for an approval by the competent authority before starting
work on the project. It pointed out that the opinion of the
Indus River System Authority (Irsa) had not been sought by the
Planning
Commission, which was mandatory in the project concerning
irrigation, under a decision of the federal government.
The source disclosed that Irsa had also written a letter to
the relevant authorities reminding them that the work on the
project could not be initiated without seeking their opinion,
particularly in view of the fact that one of the federating
units had serious reservation on the project.
Sindh officials stressed that the project should be reverted
to the Central Development Working Party (CDWP) for discussing
the technical details of the project.
They observed that at the stage of the CDWP no working paper
had been circulated by the sponsoring agency. The main thrust
of the arguments of the Sindh government was that there had
already been serious shortage of irrigation water in the
country and the
construction of canal would further aggravate the problems of
the province.
The canal would be taken out from the Chashma Jehlum Link
Canal and would irrigate an area of 1.5 million acres in
southern Punjab. The Ecnec also reviewed Left Bank Outfall
Drainage project and directed WAPDA to inform the Sindh
government about the punitive action taken against the
consultant for faulty designing of Tidal link.
Sindh government informed Ecnec that because of a serious
design fault Tidal link had been badly damaged which had been
constructed to keep sea intrusion in check. WAPDA official
said the UK-based consultant had already been black-listed by
the
authority.
Courtesy Daily Dawn, 01 March 2002 Friday
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