Sindh, Balochistan form joint body to resolve water issues

The Sindh and Balochistan governments have constituted a joint committee to resolve their water issues and remove encroachments from their common canal systems for smooth supply of irrigation water.

The decision was taken during a meeting on Thursday between the chief ministers of the two provinces, Syed Murad Ali Shah and Sanaullah Zehri. Former prime minister Mir Zafarullah Jamali was also in attendance.

The inter-provincial issues, as raised by Jamali on behalf of the Balochistan government, included shortage of water supply from the Pat Feeder and Kirthar canals, removal of encroachment from the Pat Feeder Canal’s embankments, pumping of drainage effluent into the Kirthar Canal, delay in timely completion of the RBOD-III projects and inequitable distribution of Hub Dam storage water between the two provinces.

On the shortage of water supply, Sindh CM Shah said Balochistan mainly received water via the Pat Feeder Canal off-taking from the Guddu Barrage and the Kirthar Canal of the North Western Canal off-taking from the Sukkur Barrage.

Balochistan is also receiving water from Uch, which has a design discharge of 700 cusecs, and the Manuthi Canal with a design discharge of 600 cusecs off-taking from the Desert Canal, and from more than 50 direct outlets with a design discharge of about 727.55 cusecs from the Desert and Begari canals at the Guddu Barrage, he added.

He said there were few or no complaints regarding water supply from the Guddu Barrage, adding that Sindh was supplying more water than the water accord share of Balochistan if the water supply from direct outlets might be accounted for in Balochistan’s share.

However, there are some complaints of water shortage from the Kirthar Canal of the Sukkur Barrage. “A pond level has developed at the Sukkur Barrage; therefore, the NW and Dadu canals cannot draw their full discharge. As a result, the entire system in Sindh and Balochistan suffers a water shortage.”

CM Shah, who also holds the portfolio of irrigation minister, proposed constituting a two-member committee comprising irrigation secretaries of both the provinces to study the ways and means to solve the issue. Balochistan CM Zehri welcomed the decision.

Encroachments

Zehri said there were encroachments along the Pat Feeder Canal’s embankments from RD-0 to RD-125, the portion of Sindh; therefore, there were a lot of issues in de-silting. “The flow of water has been affected badly.”

Shah told him that the main canal from RD-0 to RD-172 was being remodelled and widened for an additional discharge of 1,860 cusecs to enable Balochistan to irrigate 205,000 acres in tail-end areas of Nasirabad and Jhal Magsi districts. He directed the Larkana commissioner to remove encroachments in consultation with the Balochistan government.

Drainage effluent

Zehri said Sindh pumped a huge quantity of effluent of Shikarpur, Larkana and Garhi Yasin drains into the NW Canal at RD-83 and RD-152, adding that the saline water had affected the quality of water in the command of Kirthar Canal, causing water-borne diseases and affecting crop production.

Shah said around 350 cusecs of drainage effluent was being pumped into the NW Canal, which was about 4 per cent of the drain capacity of the canal and normally drain water of rice crop was disposed of in the NW Canal. “This water is also distributed to the command area of Sindh and no loss has been recorded in terms of production.”

  RBOD-III project

Shah told Zehri that until work on the RBOD-II project was not completed, RBOD-III could not be undertaken up by the Water & Power Development Authority (Wapda). “However, I have some reports that the project has been sent to the Executive Committee of National Economic Council for approval.”

The Sindh CM agreed to Zehri’s proposal of allowing opening an additional siphon to pass Balochistan’s effluent through RBOD-III and directed the irrigation secretary to visit the relevant areas and report to him before opening the siphon.

Hub Dam water

Zehri said 72 per cent of the Hub Dam’s catchment area was in Balochistan, but Sindh was consuming 63 per cent of the water, adding that a sharing formula was finalised in the 1980s.

Shah told him that there was no such agreed water distribution formula on record, adding that the maintenance and operation of the dam was Wapda’s responsibility and directed the irrigation secretary to compile a detailed report on the matter.