Watery issues

Water availability and distribution issues continue to bedevil the country. On the one hand, there is a rising crescendo of voices demanding an overhaul/replacement of the 1991 Water Accord, on the other total water availability is still a contentious matter and concerns are being raised about the delays in the feasibility studies of dams such as Bhasha.
To take the last first, the consultant on the feasibility of the Bhasha Dam has complained of the indifferent attitude of WAPDA, which has resulted in an undue delay in awarding the contract for preparing the feasibility report.
This may cause a delay in submission of the report from its target of July to September this year, resulting in further delays in the much-needed construction of either Bhasha or Kalabagh Dam.
The former poses unique problems such as the costs associated with reconstruction of 145 kms of the Karakoram Highway around 30 meters above the lake as 94 kms of the highway would be submerged in the dam's 782 meters long lake.
In addition, a number of bridges would have to be dismantled that happen to be on the lake site, and the road itself would have to be widened to allow the hauling of equipment required for the construction of the 1177 meters high dam. All this would double the cost.
Additional costs of millions of rupees would be entailed in the resettlement of the 24,000 people affected by the construction of the dam, besides environmental costs.
The good news however is that the local people are in favour of the dam, and the royalty issue has been settled between the federal government and concerned quarters.
The question of total water availability is a factor, inclusion of which in the terms of reference of the technical committee set up by the government is insisted on by its head, A.N.G. Abbasi, as the committee has voiced its concern about the credibility of the data available. Different line departments have conflicting data.
The technical committee has therefore now asked all these departments to provide their data and position papers within 15 days for its perusal. It goes without saying that without establishing beyond reasonable doubt the total availability of water, no planning worth the name can be carried out, nor can the contentious issues of water distribution and the vexed question of building water reservoirs, their sequencing, etc, be sorted out to the satisfaction of all the stakeholders.
It is this lack of satisfaction that has caused the 1991 Water Accord to be targeted for review.
The Accord has largely been practised in the breach, as the 1994 ministerial decision to revert to historic use and the failure to date to resolve the issue of flows downstream Kotri indicate.
To that extent it is perhaps unfair to blame the Accord for the sins of those who failed to adhere completely to its provisions.
The Accord was a rare instance of all the political forces in the country coming to a consensus on an issue that had defied resolution for many years. If the World Bank's demand for replacing the Accord with a formal legal system incorporating tradable water rights, dispute resolution mechanisms, recourse to the justice system and adjustments for seasonal and annual variability of supply and quotas is to be accepted, a White Paper reflecting the views of all the stakeholders, as suggested by the Bank, may not be sufficient.
The Bank's faith in IRSA, after some improvement in its technical and other capacity, does not seem justified by IRSA's track record.
No controversy of note since its creation has been resolved satisfactorily so far. The shortage of funds for the water sector and the planning deficit pointed out by the World Bank should make the authorities sit up and take notice.
If water availability and distribution issues are to be resolved through new mechanisms, as the World Bank suggests and is echoed by others such as IRSA's head, who has his own concerns about his home province Balochistan being left out of the water loop in the 1991 Accord, care is needed to learn from the flaws that have emerged in the decision making and implementation institutions under the Accord.
Any agreement is only as good as its practitioners. If the latter continue to defy agreed provisions, it would matter little whether the 1991 Accord stays or a new mechanism is brought in. The problems would re-emerge in some new and mostly old forms.