ISLAMABAD - Pakistan People’s Party chief Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Friday expressed serious concern at the accelerated rate with which the most fertile lands of Badin and Thatta districts were being eroded by the sea.
Research shows that already 2.4 million acres of the Indus Delta had gone under the sea and it was feared that at the present rate of sea erosion by 2035 the whole of Shah Bunder Tehsil will be under sea water and by 2050 the sea would reach Thatta city. The PPP chairman pointed out that Inter-Provincial Water Accord of 1991 recognises the need of escape of sufficient quantities of water downstream of Kotri to check sea erosion. More than 25 years later as the sea continues to devour our coastal villages and most fertile lands.
The Indus River System Authority, whose responsibility it is to implement the Water Accord has not been able to determine that sufficient quantity of downstream Kotri flow of water, he added.
Under the accord, pending a scientific study, it was temporarily agreed that 10 million acre feet of water would be allowed to flow downstream of Kotri every year, he said.
“Fancy claims are being made that 35 MAF are flowing into the sea. Can anyone explain that with this much water flowing into the sea why we were losing fertile land to the sea on a daily basis, he questioned adding we have no option other than rejecting these fancy claims and figures as false and concocted,” Bilawal said.
He pinpointed that calculations of water availability in the Indus River system given by the seven experts included in the G N Abbasi Committee constituted by former military ruler Pervez Musharaf vary from plus 32 MAF to minus 14 MAF.
“Every expert may have his own reason to arrive at figures that differ by a good 46 MAF. What we and our peasants are seeing with our own eyes is the bare fact that sea waves are advancing on lands where just a few years back lush green crops and fruit orchards existed,” he added.
The PPP chief said that the land that had gone under the sea was the land of Pakistan and every centimetre of this land was precious to Pakistan.
“The government of Sindh has started an ambitious programme of rehabilitating the old waterways in its Water Sector Improvement Project,” he said.
Senate Committee on Climate Change has also made strong recommendations to the federal government to provide adequate financial resources for completing this project.
“The recommendations of the Senate committee have not been taken up by this government like so many other recommendations made by the Senate. But how can the rehabilitation of old natural water ways check the sea erosion if there is no water flowing even in the main river,” he questioned.
Bilawal was concerned that the Irsa had not paid any attention to this serious problem, which should be alarming for every Pakistani. Its apathy and failure are condemnable.
He vowed that the next government of the PPP should give priority to protect Pakistan’s land, which was going under the sea.
“There is no natural reason for the destruction of the delta of the mighty Indus, the Lion River. This destruction is hundred per cent man-made. We see no reason why the delta of the mighty Indus cannot be protected and rehabilitated, when deltas and wetlands all over the world are being protected as a part of the programme of saving the global environment,” he said.
Meanwhile, former Interior Minister Rehman Malik rejected Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi’s tax amnesty scheme saying that it was aimed at cleaning the laundered money earned through kickbacks and to turn black money white.
He cautioned the government that this amnesty scheme would be used against Pakistan in the Financial Action Task Force where Pakistan was already under observation for terror financing.
Malik added that it could also be misused by terrorists and drug dealers beside money launderers.
He asked the government to wake up and realise the changing environment.
Senator Malik said that through the prime minister’s tax amnesty scheme, the government wanted that those money launderers and some property mafia to bring money to Pakistan on very low tax and after turning it white, they would be taking it back with justification.
He asked the government to immediately rollback this tax amnesty scheme.