Sindh demands removal of controversial canal projects from Ecnec meeting agenda

LARKANA: Pakistan Peoples Party Sindh president Nisar Ahmed Khuhro has demanded the federation remove controversial projects of Greater Thal Canal Phase-II and Chaubara Branch Canal Phase-II from the agenda of the Executive Committee of National Economic Council (Ecnec) scheduled to meet on May 31.

Senator Khuhro, who is Sindh member of the committee, said on Monday in his reaction to cabinet committee deputy secretary’s letter dated May 29, which said the two projects would be taken up for discussion at the Ecnec meeting to be presided over by federal ministers for finance and revenue, that when there was no water available in the system from where additional amount of water would be arranged for the canals.

He said the two projects were not part of the 1991’s water apportionment accord. The Central Development Working Party (CDWP) had negated the constitution by sending the projects to Ecnec when they were still pending a decision at the Council of Common Interests (CCI), he added.

It would be tantamount to bypassing the CCI to forward the projects to the Ecnec and subsequently get green signal for them, he said.

He said that Sindh, which was presently facing 40 per cent water shortage, had always voiced reservations in no unclear terms over the three-tier formula of water distribution, and came down hard on Indus River System Authority (Irsa) for its failure to implement the 1991 Accord in light of its Para-II.

He pointed out that no telemetry system had been installed to monitor water flows between Taunsa Barrage and Guddu Barrage despite Sindh’s serious suspicions its water was stolen between the both barrages.

Inclusion of the controversial canals in the Ecnec agenda by overriding Sindh’s concerns and amid water shortages would amount to deepening Sindh’s sense of deprivation, he said.

Published in Dawn, May 30th, 2023