‘Nearly 15 million environmental refugees likely’

By By Shahid Husain (Karachi), The News, Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Global warming and the ongoing thinning of Tibetan glaciers will result in as many as 15 million ‘environmental refugees’ in South Asia in the near future, said Chairperson Hisaar Foundation and member of Stockholm-based Global Water Partnership Technical Committee, Simi Kamal.

She made the observation at a selected gathering of experts under the auspices of Leadership for Environment and Development (LEAD) at Karachi Water and Sewerage Board office here on Monday. She said that it is an internationally accepted fact that the lower riparian had certain rights. She said that it is high time we look into ‘water use’, adding that there are conflicts within Punjab and Sindh but we must not confine ourselves to such conflicts.

Kamal further said that Pakistan had one of the lowest storage capacities in the world — hardly sufficient to meet water requirements for 30 days, while two-third of it goes to waste due to seepage. She said that 97 per cent of water in Pakistan is utilised for agriculture but despite this, the country has one of the lowest productivity levels in the world. She said that if water was used in a pragmatic manner, the ongoing water conflict between Punjab and Sindh would be minimised. “In the wake of rapid population growth, more food is required and it is necessary to look at the Punjab-Sindh conflict in a ‘holistic’ way,” Kamal suggested.

G. N. Abbasi, former chief of National Drainage Programme and an expert on issues related to water said that water scarcity in Pakistan should be seen in the perspective of the Indus Basin Treaty signed between Pakistan and India in 1960 and the Water Accord signed between the provinces in 1991. He said that he had serious reservations regarding the Indus Basin Water Treaty but since Pakistan had signed it, there is no option but to stick to it. Similarly was the case of the Water Accord.

He said that Sindh, which happens to be the lower riparian had serious reservations over how the water from existing reservoirs i.e. Mangla and Tarbela dams is being distributed. He said that the link canals are being operated ‘very arbitrarily’. He regretted that the Technical Committee report he submitted to the government in 2005 was not a ‘consensus report’. He said that he had defined Sindh as the lower riparian in the Technical Committee Report due to its geographical position but Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) had raised objections against it.

He concurred with Kamal regarding inter-provincial conflicts, and said that he had asked Wapda to conduct a study on the Indus Basin but was bluntly told by authorities in the organisation that it had no data on the issue. He said that “salient features” that have been added to the report on water are totally inconsistent with his report.

Ex-senator and HESCO Chairman of the Board of Directors, Abdul Majid Kazi, said that it is necessary to ascertain water availability in the River Indus before opting for a dam. Economist Abdul Hafeez Pirzada said that there is no use of signing agreements if groups involved cannot comply with them. Zulfiqar Hallopota added that the quantity of water available is not the only issue; ‘quality of water’ is also an important factor.

Prof. Aijaz A. Qureshi, General Manager (Transition) Sindh Irrigation & Drainage Authority said that Sindh has been suffering for years due to ‘Wara bandi’ and the issue of water distribution is political in nature and needs to be resolved between Punjab and Sindh. He said that the Left Bank Outfall Drain (LBOD) devoured billions of rupees from the national exchequer but had been a failure. Naseer Memon of LEAD said that major conflicts in Sindh came to the forefront after agricultural lands were distributed to non-locals, following the construction of barrages.

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