Sindh fears that the canal project for Punjab’s Cholistan desert’s irrigation, will deprive it from its share of Indus water and harm the ancient river. Indus was once worshipped and the names ‘India’ and ‘Hindu’ originated from ‘Sindhu,’ the traditional name of Indus. It belongs to Rigvedic Rivers and Indus Valley Civilisation, but Indus is now dying.
The constitutional rights of rivers have been recognised by many countries. In 2021, Canada recognised the Magpie River’s right to flow, the right to be safe from pollution, and the right to sue. The Supreme Court of Colombia gave the Amazon River the status of personhood in 2018. In 2019, the Bangladeshi Supreme Court recognised the rights of all the rivers in Bangladesh.
This year, an unprecedented water shortage has been reported, making it difficult to plan water supplies for irrigation in the Kharif season which includes rice, sugar cane, cotton, maize, and millet, while the Indus River System Authority (IRSA) has only decided upon making “drinking supplies” for one month and then review the situation. Sindh hits 50pc mark, threatening the cultivation of Kharif crops due to the Tarbela and Mangla dams hitting dead level, and having only five days reserves.
The 18th Constitutional Amendment addressed the provinces’ right to control their natural resources, allowing federal and provincial governments to equally enjoy the ownership of oil, gas and territorial waters, but the amendment is silent on the lower riparian provinces’ rights on their water resources.
To resolve the inter-provincial water dispute, the Water Apportionment Accord of 1991, apportioned specific shares of total allocable water to provinces. Thereafter, IRSA was established in 1992, but instead of resolving this issue, it approved the Cholistan Canal project, trampling over the rights of Sindh. IRSA’s composition has been challenged before the Sindh High Court, for its federal member not being appointed from Sindh and therefore, are not competent to issue the water availability certificate for the construction of Cholistan and Thal phase II canals.
The people of Sindh have lost trust in the judiciary after the Supreme Court of Pakistan (SCP) took upon itself to collect funds for constructing dams, without accounting for the fears and grievances of Sindh about constructing the Diamer-Bhasha Dam on the Indus nor making the people of Sindh part of the decision-making process. It was announced in 2023, that Indus would be diverted for constructing Diamer-Bhasha Dam, by constructing a 1 km-long tunnel and 0.8 km-long canal.
Pakistan is apprehensive of India’s investment in Afghanistan’s dams, and has been unable to reach an agreement with Afghanistan over Kabul River which joins Indus, thereby endangering the great river
If people are not made part of the decision making process then it can make that decision illegitimate and create hurdles in nation building and state building processes.
The SCP was criticised for establishing the dam fund account, leading to the Public Accounts Committee seeking to summon Pakistan’s former chief justice. The SCP ordered to transfer the amount in dam fund account to the Public Account of Federation.
The Council of Common Interest, where the present dispute is pending, resolves water related disputes under the 1973 Constitution. The 26th Constitutional Amendment has acknowledged the right of clean and healthy environment, making this dispute a human rights issue.
The present dispute has also seen awareness regarding the right to protest. Greta Thunberg’s has promoted climate protest through climate activism, allowing people to voice for climate related concerns, as evident from various protests being held in Sindh against the Cholistan canal project. The women of Karachi, on International Women’s Day, including the women from the Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum, protested and demanded for cancelling the canal project on Indus.
The British made the Punjab Canal Colonies, and the environmental impact of the British canal system needs extensive research. The British, however, under the 1901 Irrigation Commission, bound Punjab to obtain Sindh’s permission for implementing any project on the Indus.
The late Rasul Bux Palijo, a Marxist Sindhi nationalist lawyer, in his work “Sind-Punjab Water Dispute 1859-2003” writes that in 1947, a committee was constituted for dividing the Indus Basin Rivers between Pakistan and India, and its decision was appealable before the Arbitral Tribunal, headed by the Chief Justice Sir Patrick Spense. The Tribunal’s tenure was up to 31st March, 1948. He condemns the betrayal of Sindh when on 1st April 1948, the last day of the Arbitral Tribunal, India cut off the water supplies in every canal in Pakistan, in the absence of any formal documentation between both countries because Pakistan felt assured by the repeated Indian declarations about not changing the British colonial arrangement for canal waters.
Pakistan would thereafter accept India as the master of Ravi, Bias, and Sutlej for the temporary restoration of water, on the condition that the supply would be gradually decreased and then finally stopped. He believed that Pakistan should have approached the International Court of Justice (ICJ), to protect its lower riparian rights, but India is not bound to accept ICJ’s jurisdiction, nonetheless, the case against India’s water aggression can certainly be made. The people of Sindh, therefore, did not welcome the 1960 Indus Water Treaty (IWT) and did not want any dam or barrage on Indus. In April 2024, Pakistan’s Federal Law Minister wrongly concluded that India retains the right to the Ravi River’s water under IWT, thereby, prohibiting Pakistan from approaching the ICJ against India’s water aggression.
Rivers, instead of being protected, are being weaponised. After the 2016 Uri attacks, the Indian Prime Minister said that ‘blood and water cannot flow together,’ and started destroying Ravi, while Pakistan’s Ravi Urban Development Authority is forcibly evicting locals. Even the people of Cholistan, fearing displacement, approached the Lahore High Court, and the government has agreed to revisit the agreements for transferring thousands of acres of Cholistan’s land for constructing canals.
Pakistan is apprehensive of India’s investment in Afghanistan’s dams, and has been unable to reach an agreement with Afghanistan over Kabul River which joins Indus, thereby endangering the great river.
Likewise, China is constructing Senge Tsangpo and Nagri Shiquanhe hydropower stations over the Indus. “Imagining Industan: Overcoming Water Insecurity in the Indus Basin,” states that China constructing a dam near Demchok, Ladakh, Indian-Occupied-Kashmir, on Indus, establishing its regional hegemony over water.
Sindh fears the destruction of the Indus. Sindh Assembly has passed a unanimous resolution against the Cholistan Canal project, while the Sindh Chamber of Agriculture has demanded canceling the canal project and the Green Pakistan Initiative, for threatening and endangering the federation. Pakistan, therefore, as a lower riparian state, needs to recognise the rights of its lower riparian citizens before making a case against India’s water aggression. If the Cholistan Canal project dispute is not resolved within the constitutional framework, then it can end up becoming a national security issue.