News & Events

June 27, 2010

Friends of Indus Forum call for environmental flows for Indus delta

Hyderabad June 27: The Friends of Indus Forum has called to declare Indus delta as fifth shareholder of water besides four provinces. In a meeting of forum held here, the forum representatives said that water accord 1991 should be revisited. They said that gaps in national water policy should be addressed prior to its approval. The forum said that a transparent and coherent national water policy should be promulgated as soon as possible. The current institutional framework should be reassessed and forum demanded that federal water commission be set up. There must be balance between use of surface and groundwater. Water efficiency should be improved as about 40% water is lost in the system, water allocations at provincial level needs to be revised to harmonize water availability to cropping patterns, environmental flows for Indus delta needs to be recognized and allocated, water for wetlands should be allocated and Indus Basin Treaty should be renegotiated to include climate change factor.

Earlier, Dr. Altaf Abro in his presentation titled making of Pakistan’s water policy said that the draft policy identifies the problems caused by the absence of legislation on water rights and entitlements, but focuses only on how the existing provincial water rights established in the water accord can be reinforced. He said that it also makes a weak assertion that all citizens should be guaranteed right of equitable access to potable water and sanitation facilities. Nonetheless, it does not address the problem of farmer water entitlements, or the legal role of water users associations in buying and selling the bulk water entitlements in the Indus irrigation system. Dr. Abro said Pakistan’s water resources are primarily dependent on precipitation, snow melt and glacier melt but water policy draft fails to accommodate climate change factor in the national water policy.

The meeting was attended by Nazeer Memon, Nasir Ali Panhwar, Prof. Aijaz Qureshi, Prof. Qalander Shah, Zahida Detho, Badar Abro, Ali Murtaza Dharejo, Ishtiaqe Ansari, Arbab Nek Mohammad, Aziz Ranjhani, Ali Akbar Rahmoo, A B Arisar, Majeed Mangrio, Sohail Sangi, Ali Mohammad Shaikh, Shahid Panhwar, Majeed Thaheem , Shoukat Soomro and others.

For further Information:

Muhammad Zafar Khan
, Manager Communications and Environmental Education
Contact: 0300-3495901
, email: zafar.hilbi@gmail.com