Economy suffers $29b loss yearly: Irsa
Pakistan is facing about $29 billion in economic losses every year on account of unutilised flow of river waters into the sea due to limited water storage capacity.
"We and our coming generations would die of hunger if we do not build dams," Rao Irshad Ali Khan, Member Punjab of the Indus River System Authority (Irsa), told the Senate Standing Committee on Water Resources on Tuesday. The meeting was presided over by Senator Mohammad Yousuf Badini.
The committee ordered completion of the process to award by June the contract for establishment of the telemetry system for accurate reporting of water flows and immediate appointment of Irsa's member from Balochistan.
At the outset, the senators expressed displeasure over the absence of Minister for Water Resources Faisal Vawda from the meeting. Mr Badini said it was unfortunate that the "Faisal Vawda bootwala" had enough time to appear in talk shows and make mockery of state institutions with show of boots but did not attend committee meetings about his ministry. Article continues after ad Coming generations will die of hunger if dams not built, Senate panel warned
Irshad Khan told the committee that one million acre feet (MAF) water on average irrigated four million acres of land and the economic value of 1MAF water was estimated at $1bn. He said that about 29MAF water on average was going downstream Kotri - the last structure on the Indus system for water regulation - and falling into the Arabian Sea every year.
"We can save this water by increasing storage capacity and bring virgin land under cultivation, but unfortunately this has been going down the drain since 1976," he said, adding: "Our population is increasing day by day and if we keep losing, the day is not far off when people would be on roads due to hunger. We will die of hunger. Our future generations will die of hunger without additional dams."
Mr Khan said Mangla and
Tarbela dams had storage capacity of 7.3MAF and 6MAF, respectively, and even the storage of Mangla dam had dropped from 9.7MAF.
Responding to a question about Sindh-Punjab dispute over interpretation of the water accord in times of water shortages, he said the attorney general for Pakistan (AGP) had presented a report on legal interpretation of water distribution to the Council of Common Interests at its meeting on Dec 23. However, he said the issue was so sensitive that the prime minister had constituted a committee led by the AGP and comprising advocates general for the four provinces and technical experts to submit recommendations on the subject for a way forward.