This is with reference to M Khan Sials above titled letter. This is so because there has been no addition to the supply side since Mangla and Tarbela dams which too have lost one third of their capacity. Water in the rivers is a fixed or even a dwindling quantity, it is only the storage in the dams which can provide additional reserves of water – for irrigation, for community services, for the Rabi season, for power generation, for any contingency, natural or man made.
He is wrong again about an agreement under the Water Accord of 1991 for a 10 maf escapage to sea. There being no agreement it was decided to conduct further studies which determined 4.32 maf per annum or 0.36 maf per month as sufficient to check sea incursion. Surplus water is available only during the three flood months, it is only by regulating through dams that year round flow to the delta can be ensured.
How can Punjab be refusing to share shortages, as he has said, when it is IRSA, with a higher representation from Sindh, which is controlling river water distribution. These days Sindh is getting a bigger share of water than Punjab despite the latter having 55.7 percent of the total area under cultivation in Pakistan compared to only 27.5 percent for Sindh, despite Punjab bearing 80 percent of the agriculture load of the whole country.
KHURSHID ANWER
Lahore