By By Dilshad Azeem
“The accord provides that shortage will be divided on all Pakistan basis; rather than exempting Balochistan and the NWFP,” Sindh Irrigation and Power Minister Murad Shah told The News on Wednesday.
However, he favoured setting up a proper irrigation network in the NWFP and Balochistan to enable them draw water while equally sharing shortage between Punjab and Sindh.“We will take a decision to move the Council of Common Interest (CCI) once I receive a reply from the Indus River System Authority (Irsa) as it had decided to continue the past practice during the Rabi season despite lack of consensus on the issue,” the Sindh minister said.
He said neither Sindh Member Muhammad Khan Memon nor Federal Member Bashir Dahar, who is from Sindh, were part of the authority’s decision to implement the “practice in vogue”.An Irsa spokesman, when approached, confirmed the federal member was on leave but the Sindh member (Memon) was a signatory to the decision.
Murad said he discussed with the Sindh member on Wednesday about the authority’s decision. “I hopefully will receive within a week response to my Oct 22 letter dispatched to Irsa through our member.”
“If Irsa has taken a wrong decision (without consensus) then we will be left with no option but to move the CCI as Sindh is sustaining water shortage more than what it deserves.”Murad had accused Irsa of violating the 1991 water accord.
The water apportionment accord provides that irrigation projects in the NWFP and Balochistan at the time of its finalization on March 12, 1991 should also be allocated water. “The same water is guaranteed for the two provinces in para 3 of the accord.”
As the country is expected to face 30 per cent water shortage during Rabi, the NWFP and Balochistan had been exempted from sharing the shortage, firstly, because of non-existence of enough irrigation networks and their inability to utilise water.