Punjab govt approves plan to use Sutlej floodwater for desert irrigation

LAHORE: Punjab government has approved a plan to divert floodwater from the Sutlej river to irrigate a drought-prone desert region of Smaller Cholistan in the southern parts of the province, an irrigation official said on Wednesday.

Talking about the expansion of irrigated area in the Bahawalpur area along the Indian border, he said that the allocation of 0.448 Million Acre Feet (MAF) was made out of the flood share of the Punjab province under Para-4 of the 1991 Water Apportionment Accord.

It is mentioned in the said para that Punjab will be exclusively having 37 percent of the quantum of flood share. This allocation does not affect the share of any province, least of all Sindh, the official claimed.

Cholistan is a vast desert spread over 26,100 square kilometers, covering over two-thirds of Bahawalpur Division. The Cholistan desert is divided into two parts: Greater Cholistan and Smaller Cholistan. The smaller part has small sand ridges and alluvial plains. The extent of this part is about 3.5 million acres. The diverted water would be sufficient to irrigate about 0.6 million acres of land in the parched desert of Cholistan.

According to a report, the rough terrain and harsh climatic conditions played their role in keeping this region backward. The lives of local communities in the desert area are riddled with multi-faceted hardships and challenges because of the lack of basic amenities such as drinking water, food, education, healthcare and housing.

Cholistan is surrounded by the Indian border in the east, the Rahim Yar Khan district in the southwest, and Bahawalpur and Bahawalnagar in the northwest and northeast, respectively. Apart from a few existing water supply schemes, rainfall is the only other drinkable water source for both humans and animals. It is harvested in natural lowlands or in man-made small pools or depressions locally known as Tobas or in underground structures called kunds. Groundwater is largely brackish and is used when the toba water is depleted.

Coming back to the proposed plan to irrigate Lesser Cholistan with floodwater, Punjab wants to divert water through a feeder canal offtaking from Head Sulemanki having a capacity of 4,000 cusecs. This water would be available in the Kharif season only.

An official of the Irrigation Department said that the present canal capacity of the Punjab is utilised as per the availability of the water in line with the respective share of the province.

He added that the Sindh government claimed that, as Punjab had drawn 37.7 MAF during Kharif 2007, therefore, its present canal capacity is more than its present share. In this regard it is stated that the present diversion capacity of Sindh Barrages is about 1,25,000 cusecs and upon running these canals as per design discharge during Kharif season, total withdrawals will be 44 MAF which is 57 percent more than the present share of Sindh Province. Therefore, he added, it is illogical to relate the canal capacity with the total withdrawals as withdrawals depend upon the water availability during different periods of the season.

Regarding total river flows, it is stated that on average 143.0 MAF water has been received in rivers during the period from 1976-2023, and 27.0 MAF water has been released below Kotri annually.

The study of the International Panel of Experts (IPOE) recommended 8.6 MAF of mandatory releases below Kotri subject to the construction of new storages in the Indus Basin System. Whereas, the average annual flows below Kotri are much higher than the recommended flows and these releases are being made even without the construction of new storages, he opined.

Moreover, despite having surplus flows in the rivers, the decrease in flows below Kotri Barrage during the last 22 years is clear evidence of under reporting at Sindh Barrages, he claimed. The underreporting is also witnessed during various inspections and actual discharge measurements by monitoring teams.