Fawad Yousafzai 

Islamabad - Balochistan has accused Sindh of stealing its share of water for Kharif season and lodged a formal complaint with Irsa, a body which oversees division of river waters among the province.

Substantial water released from reservoirs did not reach its destination and Balochistan has approached the federal government for redress of its grievances.

“Balochistan is not getting its share of water despite the availability of enough water in canals and has lodged a complaint with Irsa (Indus Water System Authority) against the Sindh province,” an official source told The Nation here yesterday.

“Not only Balochistan but farmers in Sindh are also complaining about the water shortage which is really astonishing,” the source said, adding that this season the water releases are more than Sindh’s demand.

According the Irsa estimates the country is expected to witness zero water shortage during Kharif season and the authority had been meeting full indents of Sindh and Balochistan during this season.

According Balochistan government the province has no separate canal to extract its share from the barrages and all supplies to the province are regulated by Sindh through their own system.

Due to control over the regulation system at barrages as well as the parent channels in their territory, Sindh allegedly extracts more water than apportioned to it as per the Water Apportionment Accord agreed among the Provinces in 1991, leaving Balochistan in a disadvantageous position.

The Balochistan government maintains that the province is getting 700 cusecs less water than its approved share. It further alleged that from Pat feeder canal it’s getting 5 percent less water while from Kirthar canal it is receiving about 46 percent less water than its share.

Irsa sources informed that the total intend of Balochistan for the season was 1,500 cusecs while it has complained that it’s receiving only 803 cusec water. It said there was enough water in the system to meet the needs of all the provinces.

The share of the Sindh province for the season is 118,000 cusecs while it is receiving 150,000 cusecs. The share of Punjab is 120,000 cusecs, Balochistan 10,000 cusecs and KP 4,000 cusecs.

The total available water in storage is 5.64 million acre feer (Maf) which includes 2 Maf in Tarbella, 3.4 Maf in Mangla and 0.22 Maf in Chasma.

Enough water is being released from Tabella as Water and Power Development Authority has requested to Irsa that water level at Tarbela should not be allowed to go beyond 1,482 feet, instead of usual 1,550 feet until July 15 for completion of Tarbela-IV Extension project.

There may be no bad intention on part of Sindh government but it is mismanagement and the trust deficit among both the provinces which has led to a crisis-like situation, resulting in shortage of water in both Sindh and Balochistan despite full discharges from reservoirs as per their demands, the source said.

The complaint has been forwarded to Sindh and it has been asked to redress Balochistan’s reservations, as the water released from the reservoirs is not reaching its recipients fairly, the source informed.

Last year too Balochistan accused that Sindh had stolen its water during the Rabbi season. Irsa has assured Balochistan that the province’s grievances will be redressed.