send Petition Stop illegal constructions of Kalabagh dam & Greater Thal canal.

Stop illegal constructions of Kalabagh dam & Greater Thal canal.

To: World Bank, Asian Bank & UNO

Pakistan wants to make new and large Dams and canals for retired army officials on Indus River. Due to atrocities of province of Punjab now Sindh is facing deadly shortage of water. In fact Punjab theft the water of Sindh continuously through centuries. In 1945 an accord was made in the period of British rule. Now Punjab doing human rights and accord violations and making forcibly with the help of army, more large Dams and Canals on Indus river. "The term 'historic share' of water has no history. This term has never been used even in the context of the 1991 Water Accord. However, when the deliberations on the Water Accord were going on in 1991, the apportionment of water between Punjab and Sindh had to be decided. The committee decided to take the average of water apportioned between Punjab and Sindh from 1977 to 1982 for the sake of an exercise just to determine the amount required to be apportioned. But irrigation officials of the Punjab regarded it as their 'historic share' of water. According to the calculation of the so-called 'historic' right on water, the Punjab was awarded 48 MAF while Sindh got 46 MAF. But, when the 1991 Water Accord was finalized, Sindh was awarded 48.76 MAF of water. It is besides the point that the Punjab got a greater quantity of water in the accord, 55.94 MAF (almost 56 MAP.) Even then, the Punjab was not happy to see that as per the 1991 Water Accord, Sindh was drawing more water than the Punjab had been consuming during the years 1977 to 1982, i.e., 48 MAF. Basing the distribution of waters on the 'averages' of exaggerated flow of the Sindhu Darya was bound to lead to a major confrontation between the upper and lower riparian. The waters flowing down the Sindhu vacillates between 104 MAF and 80 MAF. How can apportionment be based on the average of such a wide difference in real flows. Surely, water apportionment depends on need. As the Sindhu Darya is the only source of water for Sindh, this province must be given its actual share especially during times of severe shortages. The Punjab, during the downswing of the cycle, has complete control of the waters in the Jehlum and Chenab rivers. In addition, the upper riparian have sweet ground water reserves of 300 MAF which they can draw on in times of shortages. Taking this reality into account, the 1945 Sindh-Punjab water agreement gave 75 per cent of the Darya's waters to Sindh. The Punjab, through its infamous link canals, could only draw water from the Sindhu during the peak flood season. That is all. Last year, during Nawaz Sharif's chauvinist rule, his province unilaterally opened the link canals in late May - early June which negatively affected agricultural output income in Sindh. This should have given the upper riparian enough sense to see the logic in the1945 Water Agreement. But, then, theft based on greed has its own perverted logic, which if repeated often enough will be believed.(By: Anwar Pirzado) The quantity of even 10 maf provisionally allocated under the accord is available only for 24 out of 72 years as calculated under the title, 'Kharif availability'. Thus it is clear that the required quantity of water for the substance of the environment cannot become available under the circumstances. It is not possible that this position can be improved by denying the allocations/commitments of the operational projects or by leaving the storages unfilled. However, it is important that at least further deterioration in the ecological conditions must be prevented. The best that can be done to save the environment from complete devastation is to plan future projects so that the minimum required discharge of 300,000 cusecs is available for outflow to sea at least for as much time as it is available, after meeting the current Kharif demand. (By: Zulfiqar Halepoto) Pakistan grows around 18 million tons of wheat per year and imports roughly 2 million tons. The average yield per acre is 0.81 tons against 0.97 tons in neighboring India and 0.87 tons for the world. So is it for each and every crop in Pakistan. A few administrative steps like streamlining the supply of quality seed at proper time; sparing a pittance for research on improved seeds in our excellent agricultural universities; eliminating the use of spurious pesticides, making fertilizers available at affordable rates and mounting a dedicated training campaign for our Haris in the proper use of pesticides and fertilizers, could increase the yield per acre, while costing only a fraction of the Rs. 500 billion needed for the Kalabagh dam. And this is only the empirical side. The effect on our agrarian society and agricultural economy when all these concerted inputs are applied at the designated sectors will be tremendous. Of the 105 MAF at present made available at the canal heads an estimated 60% is lost through evaporation and seepage as follows: 15 MAF is lost in major river beds, 10 MAF in canals and minors, 10 MAF in watercourses and 25 MAF on farms. (By: Abrar Kazi)" We strongly appeal to World Bank, Asian bank & UNO, help us to stop atrocities and violations of accord of 1945 from the side of Punjab. If Kalabagh dam and Greater Thal canal will be building, Sindh province will be in danger, due to destruction of Indus delta and deadly shortage of water.

Sincerely,