Sindh to call for CCI moot to take up its water and gas issues

The Sindh chief minister announced on Monday that he was sending a requisition to the federal government for convening the next session of the Council of Common Interests to discuss the province’s pressing water and gas issues.

The CCI meeting has become due after the passage of the constitutionally defined period of three months.

Speaking in the provincial assembly, Murad Ali Shah said he was going to write a letter to the federal government in a couple of days calling upon it to convene the required session of the CCI to discuss the water and gas issues of his province. The chief minister was speaking about the acute shortage of irrigation water in the province.

He said the last session of the CCI was held in December last year and if the new one was not convened soon, it would be tantamount to deviating from a constitutional provision.

He added that the provincial assembly had made a timely move by presenting and adopting a resolution on one of the most current and pressing issues of the province – the severe shortage of irrigation water faced by its farmers.

He said Sindh was facing a severe shortage of irrigation water at the onset of the Kharif season as Wapda had failed to fill up the Tarbela and Mangla dams on time. He added that instead of storing it, water was used for electricity generation to materialise the federal government’s claim that it had overcome the issue of power shortfall.

He said the basic utility of major dams was the storage of water for irrigation instead of primarily utilising them for electricity generation. “Federal authorities have kept on operating link canals at the cost of filling up the main water reservoirs of the country,” he added.

The chief minister said the Water Accord signed in Pakistan in 1991 had no provision for the closure of link canals when there was no additional water available in rivers and on a priority basis, major dams had to be filled up with the available quantity of water.

Shah added that he would not like to go into details as to which political parties were in power when the Water Accord of 1991 was signed.

He said those quarters in the country, which had demanded the construction of new dams, should review their proposals in the given situation that there was not sufficient water in rivers to fill up the existing main dams.

The CM noted that the federal authorities were not acting upon the directives of Indus River System Authority, which had called for filling up the main dams of the country at the rate of three feet per day. “Instead of IRSA, Wapda is running the major dams,” he lamented.

He said that farmers at agricultural land associated with Kotri Barrage required additional water in the present situation because of the early sowing for cultivation in the upcoming Kharif season.

Referring to an earlier speech delivered by a Muttahida Qaumi Movement MPA on the water shortage in Karachi, the chief minister said there was no exterior or interior Sindh and the province had always remained a single entity.

He said because of his government timely raising the issue, the Chashma-Jhelum link canal in the upcountry was no longer operational.

He said those speaking in the House on the water issue of Karachi should also support the provincial government’s demand for Kotri Barrage’s required water supply as it provided water to the city too.

Mehtab Akbar Rashdi, an MPA of the Pakistan Muslim League-Functional, said the trust deficit persisting between Sindh and Centre was causing water woes for the farmers of the province. She added that the Sindh government should prepare a strong case for the CCI session to a fair water share for the agricultural needs of the province.

The resolution in question was moved in the House by ruling Pakistan People’s Party MPA Nawab Taimur Khan Talpur.

The resolution read, “This Assembly resolves and recommends to the government to approach the federal government to take strong note of the acute shortage of water for irrigation in the province. Such an acute shortage is going to affect the agriculture, livestock and the overall economy of the province. Keeping this in view, the government should direct the authorities concerned to address the grievances of Sindh immediately.”