Kalabagh Dam Politics: A National Tragedy

It was estimated that construction of the Kalabagh Dam, would complete until 2016, generating 35,000 jobs and 3600 MW of hydro-electric power. Punjab argued that Kalabagh dam would prevent wastage of water flowing to the sea. There were considerable doubts about federal promises to recompense to those affected and resettle them. The threat of flooding of the fertile Nowshara valley and Nowshara city was also taken very seriously. After October 2005 earthquake Kalabagh dam site was considered highly risky and dangerous in an active seismic zone. Another issue was royalties of dam because the normal practice of royalties of dams used to go to the province where they originated. KPK concerned that Punjab would be denied royalties because of the dam’s location on the Punjab - KPk border and planed to position the dam’s turbine in Punjab.

Both Punjab and federal governments had given assurance that this would not happen. It should be realized that Kalabagh dam was not Punjab’s but Pakistan project. Punjab’s share of stored water would  be 37% but its loss of land and property would be for greater than of KPK. The lack of consensus was not due to technical reason but mainly because of political rivalry and lack of confidence. The lower riparian were of views that upper riparian would take undue advantage of building storage reservoirs in the upper reaches of Indus river and deprive them of their share of water. It was need of hour to develop national consensus for more large reservoirs that would be key for future progress and prosperity. The Lahore High Court ordered the federal government to start construction of the contentious Kalabagh dam. The LHC chief justice observed that the Council of Common Interest had approved the project twice and maintained that it was the government’s duty under article 154 of the constitution to implement the council’s decision.

The four provinces of Pakistan differ each other and have their own vies regarding the distribution of water.  Sindh accused Punjab of thefting water. Sindh always objected that it had received less water than its entitlements under the 1991 accord. At present flow to water is insufficient to meet minimum requirement for Sea intrusion. Consequently sea water now comes up 100km in land and caused the increased salination of lower Sindh agriculture land, with subsequent adverse effect on ecosystem. Another problem is the shrinking of the Indus basin mangroves forest, which is dependent on fresh water supplies.

There is no provision in Accord 1991to grant exemption to any province. As a result the three provinces i.e., Punjab, K.PK and Baluchistan get more than their authorized share and Sindh gets less water. The surplus water is not available for storage but only in flood years, that can be store and used in dry years if surplus water is available, for this purpose a potential site of storage is at Katzara/Skardu. If three dams on Indus at Bhasha, Kalabagh and Akhori are built, they will be filled in flood seasons, and in dry season the industry and agriculture depend on this will definite suffer. Sindh will suffer as the lower-riparian as its Kharif supplies will be significantly curtailed due to filling of these dams. According to IWT, three eastern rivers were given to India and Punjab’s canals deprived of their natural sources and supplies were made through link canals from western rivers. Sindh gets less water in present arrangements because storage in Mangla Dam and operation of link canals.

The main constraint in development of Baluchistan is the scarce water availability. Indus Water Accord allocates only 3.87 maf water which is hardly 3.55 of the total perennial flows in the system. The present canal capacities in Baluchistan are not adequate to utilize. Only 3.05 maf could be utilized rest of the areas depends upon minor perennial and non-perennial flood irrigation system for fulfilling needs of all sub sectors that is domestic, agriculture and mining. As a lower riparian of Sindh, Baluchistan accused that Sindh is using its share of allocated water due to inadequate irrigation canal system. Feeder and Kirthar, take off from Guddu and Sukur barrages ,Sindh usually released less water in to the two canals than their due share.

Khybar Pakhtunkhaw objected that Punjab’s canal system was 150 years old and quite wasteful; its wastage was more than 50 percent in its conveyance system before reaching the field. The major changes in agricultural practices required more water in a demand-base system. So it became more difficult to maintain the condition of rigid regime flow of non-silting in the canal by carrying fixed designed discharge, this silting of canals causes further shortage of water. Drain system is old and now it has blocked. The canal and drainage Act of 1887 was exclusively ignored and drainage of land started seriously creating problems of salinity and water logging. There is no tendency to alternate the wasteful practices in irrigation system. The quality of local consulting hired by WAPDA is below standard. So corruption and low pay is another serious problem and diverts attention from professionalism. The average annual surface water available in Pakistan is about 142 maf. Out of this, 105 maf on the average is diverted into the traditional and wasteful supplybased canal irrigation system. Out of 105 maf of water, that is diverted into the canal system about 52 maf is lost through the unlined canal irrigation system due to seepage, leakage and because of the wastage of water in the supply-based canal flowing full supply discharge irrespective of the water requirements of crops. Moreover, the one million miles of the traditional watercourses and the uneven irregular shaped field is another major contribution source of the wastage of fresh water. Again, out of 142 maf of water, about 35 maf is the wasted to sea during the flood season. In this way, the total surface water losses are 87  maf out of 142 maf. This comes to 61 percent of the available water. This huge wastage of water should be avoided by implementing water management, so that the country is neither water-stressed nor water-scarce. If this is accomplished, it would then be possible to irrigate a barren area of about 25 million acres of land to feed the growing population.

Indus carries heavy sediment load that rapidly depletes storage capacity of reservoirs. Watershed Management is vital part of the storage project for achieving long life but this has always been ignored. The selection of dam site should be task of Watershed Management to achieve long life of the reservoir. Dam should be on upper reaches. Terbela is on lower reach, an example of rapid silting due to its wrong location. In 2025, Mangla and Terbela would completely silt up. There is a unique and multipurpose dam site at Katzarah on the Indus. Its storage capacity would be 35 maf that is six times greater than of Bhasha or Kalabagh. It would irrigate a new barren area of about 8 million acres. Katzarah dam would also control ruper floods and wet years flow. The life of Katzarah dam is more than 1000 years, due to snow fed and nominal silt, as this region is outside the monsoon range. It is surprising that this unique dam site is ignored in vision 2016. Yet five ineffective dams are proposed. These five ineffective storage dams would be disastrous for the country’s irrigated agriculture to produce food for fast growing population. It is suggested to create the Indus Valley Authority for the construction of dam. Kalabagh dam remained under political and technical controversy for the past thirty years. Being the tail end it has poorest capacity- inflow ratio on the Indus and received maximum quantity of silt. The constitution have pointed out that foundation of dam site is very weak. It would block the sub-surface flow of Peshawar valley and whole valley would be destroyed due to water logging.

The Punjab irrigation system provides life line for agricultural economy of province. Punjab accounts for 80% of Pakistan agriculture production. Over 90% of the agricultural output in Punjab comes from irrigated land. The Punjab irrigation system is a part of Indus Basin system with 25 main canal commands system off-taking from 13 barrages over the Indus and its tributaries. Agriculture sector employs more than 50% of the work force and accounts for 70% of export revenues. Some areas of Punjab such as Potohar, Cholistan and DG Khan are water stressed and have to collect drinking water from far areas. There is a half million big and small industrial units in the Punjab generate second highest employment in the country and consume nearly 2.2 maf of water annually.

The apportionment of water was made in the Water Accord 1991 against the existing actual uses of 103.73 maf. The figure of 117.35 maf of water on the basis of which accord is made was never achieved nor is likely to be achieved in near future because of silting up of existing reservoir and reduction in their storage capacities. Water demand is increasing day by day in Punjab on account of growing population, increasing urbanization and industrialization. So, it is high time Pakistan built new reservoirs. The construction of Kalabagh should be top priority. Huge wastage of water should be avoided by improve irrigation efficiencies.

On the basis of the findings, mentioned above, It is recommends that the Federal government should not discriminate against any province on the basis of political affiliation and must provide equal apportionment of water for the development of each province. The role of politicians should be to develop national consensus and strengthen the democratic institutions. The national consensus on the construction of Kalabagh dam should be on top priority. The objections by Sindh and KPK should be removed by providing substitute development in these provinces. The flow of fresh water to the sea should be minimized. Seepage and evaporation may be controlled through lining of canals and reservoirs. Provincial differences on sharing of water may resolve amicably and speedily. Huge wastage of water should be avoided and made it possible to irrigate barren areas from getting benefit of this unused water. Canal system should be modify and replace sub-surface tile system to save the wastage of 35 maf. Millions miles traditional water course need replacement under demand based irrigation system. The feeling of Pakistan must prevail upon the feeling of being a Punjabi, Sindhi , Balochi and Pathan. The alarming water shortage in Pakistan calls for political vision, pragmatic policies and affective river regulations.