The root cause of distrust is that Sindh treats the Indus River as Sindh’s river, which it was until three rivers were lost to India. Now the whole country has to subsist on the three remaining rivers of which only the Indus has surplus flows from many tributary rivers. Tarbela dam was built to transfer water from the Indus to the canals in north and south Punjab which were previously serviced by Ravi and Sutlej rivers. The intent of the Indus Water Treaty could not have been to deprive these canals of the waters of Ravi and Sutlej without providing for replacement water from the western rivers. The CJ and TP link canals are supplying water from Tarbela dam to the canals in south Punjab. And the left bank canal at Kalabagh dam will supply replacement water to the canals in north Punjab. Without the left bank canal, north Punjab will not get any water from any dam on the Indus, be it Tarbela, Bhasha, Akhori, Dassu, Skardu or Katzara. With Mangla dam silting up progressively, two thirds of north Punjab will revert from irrigated to barani, with a 50 percent loss in national food production.
ENGR KHURSHID ANWER
Lahore