Inter-provincial disharmony

Member Punjab of the Indus River System Authority (Irsa), Rao Irshad Ali Khan, warned the standing committee on water that 'we and our future generations will die of starvation if we do not build reservoirs' and that if 5 percent of the population affected by the water shortage takes to the streets there would be a law and order situation which no government would be able to control. During the 17 months that Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaaf (PTI) has been in government, Prime Minister Imran Khan has inaugurated numerous projects including his administration's signature Ehsaas programme components, including health cards, yet there has been no formal inauguration or ribbon-cutting of a water reservoir. This is indeed very disturbing in light of severe warnings that have been issued for decades by several international entities, including the International Monetary Fund and United Nations Development Programme, as well as domestic entities like Pakistan Council for Research and Water Resources. Pakistan, they warn, will reach absolute water scarcity by 2025 - a mere five years away, a threat greater than the threat of terrorism.

Water has been one of the major factors in generating federal and provincial as well as intra-provincial disharmony in Pakistan, a factor that has been evident in other countries like Australia where distribution of water to federating units was challenged culminating in an agreement. Be that as it may, Pakistan's water accord 1991 is clearly not being implemented in letter and spirit due to the capacity of influentials to circumvent the agreement.

Dire warnings no doubt prompted the then Shahid Khaqan Abbasi administration to sign off on the National Water Policy titled 'Pakistan Water Charter' during the 37th meeting of the Council of Common Interests represented by all the three major national parties notably PPP in Sindh, PML-N in Punjab and PTI in KPK - a document prepared and finalized by the Ministry of Planning that was headed at the time by the eminently qualified Sartaj Aziz. There were two main components of the policy. First an increase in development budget for water resources from 3.7 to 10 percent by 2019 and eventually to 20 percent by 2030; in this context, it is relevant to note that Prime Minister Imran Khan when in opposition constantly and rightly challenged the previous administrations' expenditure priorities, a charge that now can be levelled against him as his allocations for construction of water reservoirs remain, at best, less than lukewarm.

And second, the policy contended that Pakistan dumps water worth approximately 21 billion dollars into the sea each year due to lack of water conservation system, an amount that the Standing Committee was informed had risen to 29 billion dollars, and there is a need to conserve it through construction of reservoirs. Sindh disputes this amount arguing that the amount of unutilised flow of river waters into the sea is less and accuses the influential people in Punjab of diverting water to irrigate their lands; however, the standing committee agreed that a telemetry system must be set up to ensure that data does not become controversial. What can be supported is a senior official of the Punjab Irrigation Department's suggestion that Punjab would encourage deputations from independent inspectors at all discharge points of the irrigation system until the telemetry system is operational.

We sincerely hope that Prime Minister Imran Khan revisits the expenditure priorities and at the same time reduces the trust-deficit between provinces on water issues.