RECENTLY put into trial operation, Jalalpur canal has stoked a new controversy between Punjab and Sindh. A summary of the Sindh government, raising objections against the project, was already pending with the Council of Common Interests (CCI) since 2024.
Sindh had been raising objections on this project from its inception, but these have been consistently disregarded.
A 117km-long main canal with a design discharge of 1,350 cusecs off-taking from the right bank of the Rasul barrage on the Jhelum river, it aims to irrigate a culturable command area of about 68,000 hectares in the Potohar plateau of Punjab, mainly in Pind Dadan Khan and Khushab during the Kharif season.
The Asian Development Bank had provided financial assistance for design and construction of the project to the Punjab government.
Punjab claims that it will use its own share of water for the new canal through internal adjustment. Sindh, however, has questioned the source of additional water of approximately 0.5 million acre feet every year.
Punjab has distributed all its water allocated under the 1991 Water Accord. Internal adjustment would require slashing the share of water of some other canal command area. Publicly available project documents do not mention barrages or canals willing to sacrifice their share of water. Diverting allocated water will deprive the command area concerned of its irrigation share.
The Indus River System Authority (Irsa), while issuing a no-objection certificate for the project in September 2014, made it contingent upon using Punjab’s own share of water for the canal. The Sindh member was the only dissenting voice, but was outvoted with a majority of 4-1. Irsa, however, did not question how Punjab will internally adjust allocation of water of its canals without any detriment to the existing command areas.
The project envisages a significantly above-normal water allowance.
It is also noteworthy that the project envisages a significantly above-normal water allowance. The canal has been designed with a water allowance of approximately 6.75 cusecs per thousand acres, nearly two-and-a-half times higher than the 2.75 cusecs per thousand acres allowance for Sindh’s canal systems.
The provincial assembly of Sindh, in its sitting on November 22, 2021, unanimously adopted a resolution moved by Jam Khan Shoro, minister for irrigation, and several other members to express grave concern over the construction of the Jalalpur canal and Chaubara branch canal project under greater Thal canal (phase-II). The resolution also criticised the federal government for its alleged compliance with the controversial project despite the legal objections of Sindh. The house termed the project against the 1991 Water Accord and the Irsa Act, 1992.
Prior to this, the Sindh government through P&D department raised the objection in the Ecnec meeting held in early 2018. The provincial government also addressed a letter to the secretary, ministry of planning, development and special initiatives on Nov 11, 2021 to convey reservations on the Jalalpur canal.
The canal is designed to provide irrigation from April to October on non-perennial basis. The early Kharif months of April and May are a critical period when the Indus river system experiences severe water shortages.
In its summary submitted to the CCI, Sindh has presented data on water shortages over the last two decades. The province witnessed over 50 per cent shortages in early Kharif for several years. In the current year too, Sindh experienced up to 65pc shortages at Kotri barrage during early Kharif months. A further diversion of 1,350 cusecs trough Jalalpur canal will unleash havoc for crops in Sindh where Kharif crops are sown earlier than Punjab.
Sindh has apprehensions that since Punjab does not have any surplus water in the system, eventually it will divert additional water from the Indus through Chashma-Jhelum and Taunsa-Panjnad link canals to meet additional water requirements in the Jhelum zone.
The Indus delta will ultimately pay the cost, which already receives little or no freshwater for much of the year and faces unrelenting ecological degradation. Further curtailment of freshwater inflows will worsen its fragile ecosystem by accelerating seawater intrusion and loss of livelihoods for the delta dwellers.
CCI is a constitutional forum empowered to resolve conflicts on water sharing between the provinces under Article 154 of the Constitution. It is lamentable that the canal was constructed while Sindh’s summary awaited intervention of the CCI. The very act was in contravention of the spirit of the federation. Such instances undermine credibility of institutions like Irsa and the CCI and deepen mistrust between the federation and the federating units.
The writer is a water sector expert.
Published in Dawn, August 7th, 2026
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