ISLAMABAD: Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) senior leader and Senator Taj Haider on Tuesday expressed disappointment over the complete omission of the most serious issue of sea intrusion in the International Water Conference organised by the Supreme Court (SC).
In a statement issued, Senator Taj Haider said that during the hearings on the water issue in Karachi he had personally submitted summaries and conclusions of six studies on sea intrusion to the SC and the court was pleased to assure that the issue was a very serious issue and would be taken up in the planned international conference.
He said that it is not the sweet water which was going into the sea, adding that it is the precious agricultural land of Pakistan that has been devoured by the sea. He said that 2.5 million acres of land in Thatta and Badin districts have already been lost and the studies point out that if sea intrusion is not effectively checked, then the sea would reach the city of Thatta by 2050 completely submerging the Indus Delta.
The PPP leader said that if 32 MAF of fresh water per year is actually going into the sea, as claimed, we would not have been facing the problem of sea intrusion.
The fact is that even the release of 10 MAF down the Kotri stream as agreed upon as an interim a measure in the Inter-Provincial Water Accord is not being done, he maintained.
He said that construction of a carry over dam at Diamer Bhasha would certainly serve to control heavy floods that come every 8 to 10 years. The stored water could be used in subsequent years in a planned manner to make up for shortages in river flows. This would boost our agricultural economy.
Senator Taj Haider said that major problem is that no agreed operational criteria have been framed for the already existing 2 dams or for the 2 link canals.
Mangla and Tarbela are being operated as power plants and not as water reservoirs, giving priority to meet the irrigation needs of the provinces as laid down in the Water Accord.
He said that the water needed for irrigation is not allowed to flow downstream in order to maximise the generation of electricity.
It is obvious that in the absence of agreed operational criteria, Bhasha dam would be similarly operated, he stated.
Was not it a fact that the two link canals on Mehran at Chashma and Tuansa were also planed as flood canals but were later turned into perennial canals, he questioned
Senator Taj Haider said that in these days of highly developed agricultural technology, there are so many ways not only to overcome water shortages but to multiply our agricultural yields.
However, he said, there is only one way to save depleting river deltas and to stop sea intrusion and that was to allow required quantities of fresh water to flow down to the sea, he concluded.
