Greater Thal Canal stalled on technical hairsplitting

LAHORE: Ministry of Planning, Development & Special Initiative (MPD&SI) has been accused of reinventing the wheel on the next phase of already passed Greater Thal Canal (GTC) Project by splitting technical hairs, delaying the development process.

“As a result of nonprofessional attitude of the ministry, a simple matter of a minor amendment in the financial proposal of a critical water sector project has potentially been turned into a full-blown controversy, involving unnecessary technical discussion on settled issues,” said a senior official of Punjab government here Tuesday.

The water share and technical aspects of Greater Thal Canal project have duly been approved by all relevant authorities. The official said it was a done and dusted project in the sense that head-regulator of the canal with sanctioned flow design and main canal had already been constructed and in operation for over 10 years.

“Hence, no fresh approval is required for water intake structure and other technical parameters including water share,” he added.

The provincial government had sought a simple intervention of the federal government in the financial proposal of the project last year to fulfil a procedural requirement. However, to utter shock, despite acknowledging the fact that Punjab’s proposal related to GTC-II has been submitted for seeking change in source of funding, Central Development Working Party (CDWP) instead initiated a multipronged consultative process on already settled technical aspect of the project including water share and concerns of the provinces.

Neither a discussion on the technical aspects of the GTC project was sought nor was it required as all such approvals had been granted by Indus River System Authority (IRSA) and Executive Committee of the National Economic Council’s (ECNEC). Above all, water share of GTC has been made part and parcel of unanimously approved Water Apportionment Accord (1991) as a separate annexure.

“The technical aspect of GTC had also been thoroughly hashed out at Council of Common Interest (CCI) later and consequently given go-ahead to,” said the official citing various documents. However, the senior official regretted that instead of approving it with a stroke of pen, MPD&SI and Ministry of Finance had virtually made GTC proposal a shuttlecock, since October 2021.

“They have pathetically made it a classic example of how an approved project can be turned into a controversy by unnecessarily dragging feet over non-issues,” he added.

To complicate the whole issue, the Planning Commission has restarted querying IRSA management about river water availability in an uncalled-for exercise.

On January 08, 2022, the commission wrote to IRSA seeking reply to eight queries regarding general water availability in the Indus Basin.

“This attempt seems to be aimed at delaying execution of the project,” claimed the official.

The sheer incompetence demonstrated by the federal government has potentially pushed an approved project off the track. The foreign lender in this case is being unnecessarily discouraged due to uncertainty created by the top officials on the fate of the project.

According to another official, the problem started to emerge and virtually threatening to derail the whole project when Punjab’s representatives were barred from sharing point of view in the ECNEC meeting on November 24, 2021 by the Minister for PD&SI.

“Had we been allowed to continue to participate in the meeting and elaborate our case, seeking a procedural approval could have been an easier task,” sources quoted Mohsin Leghari, Punjab Minister for Irrigation, as having said in a departmental meeting. Ministry of PD&SI didn't allow provincial representative to share province's stance and snubbed them for no reason.

A spokesperson of Planning Commission blamed ECNEC for initiating debate over GTC project, saying on December 22, 2021, the ECNEC considered the project, where the Government of Sindh raised certain observations.

“The ECNEC approved the project, in principle, subject to the condition Planning Commission shall hold a meeting with the representatives of Sindh and Punjab, and the final recommendation shall be submitted to ECNEC, in its next meeting,” the spokesperson said.

Following the directions of the ECNEC, the commission met with the officials of both the provinces, the official said adding that the key points raised in that session were being examined, while a follow-up session had been scheduled.

The official said the final recommendations of Planning Commission would be placed before ECNEC in its next meeting. The spokesperson further said Planning Commission was committed to transparent, fair, and equal treatment of all the provinces and special areas of Pakistan.

“Water issues are handled with due care and diligence to safeguard the rights of all the parties.” About not allowing Punjab representative to share province’s stance, the spokesperson insisted that it could be the result of a misunderstanding.