Islamabad - Chairman NA Committee on Water Resources has said that IRSA has failed to fulfill its responsibility as regulator and sought Prime Minister of Pakistan help for resolving the issue of distribution of water among the provinces and improvement of water distribution mechanism.
In a letter to Prime Minister Imran Khan, Chairman Committee on Water Resources, Nawab Yousaf Talpur wrote: “May I seek your attention towards a matter of urgent public importance and national interest regarding the distribution of water among the provinces of Pakistan. Indus River System Authority (IRSA) has been mandated to distribute the water among the Provinces but failed to fulfill its responsibilities”. “You are requested to intervene in the issue and ensure the just distribution of the water, as already unanimously agreed upon, by all of the provinces of Pakistan, under Water Apportionment Accord, 1991,” he added.
It has been noticed that the distribution pattern worked out in the IRSA advisory committee meeting for cropping season 2021, were made on most controversial 3-tier formula and the operation of the link canals, filling of Mangla Dam while link canals being operated in during entire Kharif 2021 season particularly during shortage periods, which is the stern violation of the distribution of the Indus basin water in Pakistan. The distribution deviates from the provisions of the Water Accord 1991.
IRSA has failed to fulfill its responsibility as regulator, laments Chairman NA Committee on Water Resources
Giving the details, the letter further said that Water Apportionment Accord, the agreement to share water among four provinces was reached on March 16, 1991, and the CCI approved it the same month. The Indus River System Authority (IRSA) was created in compliance of the WAA-1991 with a duty to regulate and distribute surface waters amongst the provinces.
Under the WAA-1991, the apportionment of water is made under para 2 of the Accord. Para 14(a) instructs the provinces to workout the system-wise allocation on ten daily basis” equalising to the para 2 apportionment. Whereas para 14(b) clearly defines that these ten daily uses would be adjusted pro-rata to correspond to the indicated seasonal allocations of the different canal systems and would form the basis for sharing shortages and surpluses on all Pakistan basis.
Talpur alleged that IRSA have surpassed its mandate envisaged under the WAA-1991 and started to distribution contrary to it and have devised their own formulas. Despite of the objection of the Sindh on the distribution on WAA-1991-cum-3-tier formula, IRSA distribute the water in each cropping season through its Advisory committee to the KP and Balochistan Provinces on agreed Para-2 of the WAA-1991 and exempts both provinces from shortages (contrary to para 14(b) of the WAA-1991), thereafter, the remnant water IRSA distributes between the Punjab and Sindh on most controversial distribution formula i.e. 3-tier formula. It is prudent to understand that the Water Accord was mostly based on figures worked out in Fazl-e-Akbar and Haleem Commission Reports of 1971 and 1983 respectively. Interestingly, the WAA-1991 figures for distribution of water amongst the provinces tallies with the figures provided by the Punjab in Haleem Commission on the basis of its Study for post-Tarbela but pre-Kalabagh availability.
IRSA began tampering with the Water Distribution Accord barely one year after it was established. On May 2, 1994, a meeting of the provincial committee of ministers was convened in which, a new formula was proposed to distribute water based on average system uses from 1977 to 1982, which were allowed to the provinces from time to time by the then ministry of water and power for Rabi and early Kharif seasons.
After widespread protests in Sindh, the ministry of water revoked this unjustifiable water distribution, but IRSA continued to practice unlawfully based on the 1994 formula until November 12, 2001, when the Chief Executive of Pakistan and the law division sternly revoked this practice.
