Karachi, the biggest city of Pakistan’s Sindh province, has been known for being a stronghold of the Bhutto clan and often espoused the cause of Sindhis in an uninhibited manner. Now that the controversy regarding six new canals, including Cholistan canal, is deepening, the citizenry of this cosmopolitan city is gravitating towards anti-Punjab discourse. This anti-Punjab discourse, and by extension anti-Army too, is being fuelled by severe water shortages that may occur all over Sindh in the near future.
Given this bleak scenario of water scarcity, Sindhis are closing ranks and a consensus is building up to take on the bigger upper riparian Punjab headed by Maryam Nawaz of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz. The fear of Pakistan Army and its chief General Asim Munir has given way to life or death question of acute and perennial water shortages. These shortages will become the fate of the province if fails to oppose and stall the new canals, according to reports in most Pakistani newspapers.
The water discharge from Mangla has been stopped already by the regulator after it reached a dead storage level a couple of days ago. It is the turn of Tarbela dam now to meet the same fate as it is fast reaching the dead storage level. Once the release of water is stopped altogether, standing wheat crop is likely to be hit hard, particularly in downstream Sindh. The reason is the dependence of Sindh farmers on canal waters for irrigating their crops. In Punjab, the farmers can use deep borewells to irrigate the crop but in Sindh this option is not available as ground water is brackish in many areas.
The news regarding Punjab ignoring calls from the Sindh government to stop work on canals could not have come at a worse time. This news has come at a time when Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA) has decided to stop outflow of waters from Mangla and Tarbela dams as they have reached dead levels. This is due to the fact that the quantum of stored waters in these dams has hit rock bottom due to very low precipitation in the upper reaches of various rivers.
Anti-Punjab sentiment deepens
The first salvo against the Punjab government and the Army was fired by President Asif Zardari some days ago. His open opposition of the canals then showed the way to Sindh assembly which passed a unanimous resolution terming these planned canals as illegal.
The debate and discourse about the canals has now entered the public domain at the level of ordinary citizens. On Friday, speakers at a seminar title “Indus River: The Lifeline of Sindh Under Threat” highlighted the growing ecological and socio-economic challenges posed by the degradation of the Indus River. Incidentally, the Sindh province is named after the river but now ironically faces the usurpation of this lifeline.
The seminar was organised by the National Trade Union Federation Pakistan (NTUF) and a youth organisation, Alternate, at the Karachi Press Club. It coincided with the 28th International ‘Action Day for Rivers’ and saw participation of intellectuals, public representatives, and environmental activists. Speaker after speaker spoke about the importance of protecting the Indus River, lifeline of Sindh and its people.
In his speech, NTUF Secretary General Nasir Mansoor stressed that rivers are living entities, and interfering with their natural flow is not only an ecological crime but also a threat to regional stability. He also pointed out that Pakistan’s coastal areas, once home to the world’s seventh-largest mangrove forests, have been devastated, and the Indus Delta, the world’s fifth-largest delta, is now in jeopardy.
Zehra Khan, Secretary General of the Home-Based Women Workers Federation described the construction of the six canal project as a “suicidal act” that would exacerbate the region’s vulnerability to climate change.
Academic Sajjad Zaheer expressed solidarity with Sindh’s resistance against the six canal project and other infrastructural projects that harm the region’s ecology. Zaheer recalled the historical struggles of Sindh against the Kalabagh Dam.
Tabassum Khoso from the Imdad Foundation highlighted the growing environmental threat to coastal areas like Thatta and Sajawal.
Fishermen Forum Rally
A large number of fisherwomen and men, along with political and human rights activists, participated in the Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum’s rally against canals being built on the Indus River. The demand of the rally was No Canals, No Dams, and No Cuts on the Indus River. The protest started in Ibrahim Hyderi and ended at Mal Jetty. The Central General Secretary of Pakistan Fisherfolk Saeed Baloch, stated that the struggle of the Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum against the construction of six canals on the Indus River will continue.
People in large numbers, protestors all, gathered in large numbers at the Kotri barrage, the last engineering structure on the Indus River before it meets the Arabian Sea. For the last two decades, there is not enough water below this barrage to stop the ingress of the sea into land.
Sindhi nationalist political parties, citizens and farmers organized separate rallies from Hyderabad and Jamshoro converging on the barrage. Protest rallies were also taken out across the province with rallyists calling for all work on six canals. People showered rose petals at the river as a sign of respect and to pay tributes to it.
Jeay Sindh Mahaz’s Chairman Riaz Ali Chandio, who led his party’s rally at the barrage, said people of Sindh won’t allow feudal lords sitting in the provincial government to rob their right over the river. The Sindh Hari Committee’s President Samar Hyder Jatoi argued that President Zardari’s speech in which he rejected the canals also endorsed contention of the protesting Sindhis that they foresee desertification in the province if the canals are fed the river’s water.
