For Pakistan’s Sindh, drying up of second largest reservoir both a blessing and curse

A local fills a water bucket near the Chotiari water reservoir in Sindh's Sanghar district, Pakistan, on September 19, 2021. (AN photo by Zulfiqar Kunbhar)
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Updated 27 September 2021
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For Pakistan’s Sindh, drying up of second largest reservoir both a blessing and curse

  • Chotiari reservoir, which irrigates 290,000 acres of land in Sanghar and Umerkot districts, is touching “almost dead level”
  • Some landlords say reduction in water level is blessing as water from reservoir has caused waterlogging and soil salinity in surroundings

SANGHAR: The Chotiari water reservoir, the second largest water storage facility in Pakistan’s Sindh province, is facing acute shortages and touched an “almost dead level” due to low monsoon rains this year, a senior Sindh irrigation official said on Friday.

While the development has been widely seen as a threat to the availability of drinking and irrigation water in the southern province, experts as well as some farmers described it as a blessing, saying the artificial lake had caused major waterlogging and soil salinity in its surroundings and thus destroyed agricultural land.

The Chotiari reservoir is situated on the edge of Pakistan’s Achhro Thar, or white desert, in Sanghar district bordering India. Historically, the Chotiari was a complex of deep lakes and riverine Makhi forests. It was turned into a reservoir in 2002.




A view of the gates of the Chotiari water reservoir in Sindh's Sanghar district, Pakistan, on September 19, 2021. (AN photo by Zulfiqar Kunbhar)

Lake Manchar, the largest natural freshwater lake in Pakistan, which is in Sindh’s Dadu and Jamshoro districts, has remained empty for over two decades, making the Chotiari reservoir, with a storage capacity of 0.71 million acre feet, a major source of drinking and irrigation water in the region.

Today, the water body is nearing an “almost dead level,” said Mansoor Memon, the Chotiari reservoir project director from the Sindh Irrigation Department. 

If upper parts of the country did not receive enough rains in the ongoing monsoon season, he warned, water shortage in command areas of the reservoir could increase by up to 30 percent.

Already, the cultivation of kharif crops — planted February onwards and harvested till September — in the Chotiari reservoir command area has been reduced to half by the season ending September-end. And if rain patterns remain the same, the upcoming rabi, or spring harvest, will also see dangerously low crop yields, raising fears of food insecurity given that wheat is a major rabi crop.




An empty boat at the Chotiari water reservoir in Sindh's Sanghar district, Pakistan, on September 19, 2021. (AN photo by Zulfiqar Kunbhar)

“Prior to monsoon rains, it [water level in the reservoir] had reduced to 5 feet, touching almost dead-level,” Memon told Arab News, saying it was currently at 8 feet.

“If rainfall occurs as per forecast, we will touch the 15-feet level by November, which we call comfort level,” the official explained, saying if there were not enough rains and water continued to be supplied to the reservoir at existing levels from the Indus river, “we would face 30 percent water shortage in command areas in just the rabi season.”

The reservoir is filled through the Nara canal, the longest canal in Pakistan, which runs for about 364 kilometers, and irrigates 290,000 acres of land in the Sanghar and Umerkot desert districts. It fills up during the kharif season that falls between April and September.

However, fresh satellite and classified images obtained from the Sindh Agriculture University Tandojam (SAUT) show that 83 percent of the reservoir is empty.




Landlord Abdul Khaliq Junejo poses with his sesame crop in the surrounding area of the Chotiari water reservoir in Sindh's Sanghar district, Pakistan, on September 17, 2021. (AN photo by Zulfiqar Kunbhar)

“On the basis of classified images, we can say that on September 09, 2021, 93 percent of the Chotiari reservoir area was empty,” Prof Dr. Altaf Ali Siyal, an SAUT director for research, innovation and commercialization, told Arab News.

“With the arrival of water in the River Indus because of the monsoon, the situation improved slightly on September 18, 2021 and Chotiari was 83 percent empty. In the command area, Chotiari water is useful especially during rabi that starts from October or so,” he said, predicting severe water shortage in the reservoir’s lower Nara Canal command area in the upcoming rabi season.

Hajji Muhammad Shafi Palli, a 55-year-old grower from Umerkot district’s Kunri area, said he had cultivated cotton, pearl millet and sesame in the outgoing Kharif season, but his yield was half of the usual average produce.

His 40 acres (16 hectares) of agriculture land is fed through the Chotiari reservoir tributaries, covering around 150 kilometers. Palli and other growers in the area have already received an advisory from authorities for the upcoming rabi season starting October, with warnings to limit cropping area depending on water availability in the Chotiari reservoir and the volume of rain in the River Indus catchment area.

“After advisory, I fear that I may have to limit wheat production to four acres (1.6 hectares) as compared to my last year’s 20 acres of cultivation area,” Palli told Arab News. “Similarly, I would have to reduce other crops like mustard.”

But some are happy the reservoir is drying up.

Abdul Khaliq Junejo, 60, who owns 25 acres of agricultural land adjacent to the Chotiari reservoir, said a reduction in its water level was a blessing since water from the reservoir had been causing major waterlogging in its surroundings.




A boat is anchored in front of the Bakar Lake Resort at the Chotiari water reservoir in Sindh's Sanghar district, Pakistan, on September 19, 2021. (AN photo by Zulfiqar Kunbhar)

Indeed, a 2019 study by the University of Nevada, the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) and Pakistan’s Mehran University of Engineering and Technology in Jamshoro said the Chotiari reservoir had caused major water logging, soil salinity and negative vegetation in the adjacent areas of the structure.

“I was able to cultivate a sesame crop this year after a gap of three years as the water level went low,” Junejo said.

According to Junejo and other growers, at the time of the reservoir’s construction, authorities promised to ensure the extraction of seepage water through tube wells and pumping stations, but these promises are yet to be fulfilled.

“Not a single tube well is working and there is no arrangement of seepage water management,” Junejo said. “As a result, there is hardly one crop all year, which has resulted in mass unemployment. Most locals have been forced to stop cultivating their own lands and migrate to other areas to work on others’ lands.”

Chotiari reservoir project director Memon acknowledged the complaints.

“Reduction of water in the Chotiari reservoir also means a blessing in disguise for the surrounding areas,” he said. “There is a scheme of 100 tube wells for the associated work of Chotiari reservoir seepage water extraction, but all tube wells are not functional because of electricity-related issues.”


Paris court sentences Pakistani who targeted Charlie Hebdo to 30 years jail

Updated 23 January 2025
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Paris court sentences Pakistani who targeted Charlie Hebdo to 30 years jail

  • When he carried out attack, 29-year-old Zaheer Mahmood wrongly believed satirical newspaper was still based in the building
  • Newspaper had moved in the wake of an earlier attack, which killed 12 people including eight of the paper’s editorial staff

PARIS: A Paris court on Thursday sentenced a Pakistani man to 30 years in jail for attempting to murder two people outside the former offices of Charlie Hebdo in 2020 with a meat cleaver.
When he carried out the attack, 29-year-old Zaheer Mahmood wrongly believed the satirical newspaper was still based in the building, which was targeted by Islamists a decade ago for publishing cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.
The newspaper had in fact moved in the wake of the attack, which killed 12 people including eight of the paper’s editorial staff.
The killings in 2015 shocked France and triggered a fierce debate about freedom of expression and religion.
Originally from rural Pakistan, Mahmood arrived in France illegally in the summer of 2019.
The court had earlier heard how Mahmood was influenced by radical Pakistani preacher Khadim Hussain Rizvi, who had called for the beheading of blasphemers to “avenge the Prophet.”
Mahmood was convicted of attempted murder and terrorist conspiracy, and handed a ban from ever setting foot on French soil again.


Pakistan says three militants killed trying to infiltrating its border with Afghanistan

Updated 23 January 2025
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Pakistan says three militants killed trying to infiltrating its border with Afghanistan

  • Islamabad frequently accuses Afghanistan of sheltering, supporting militant groups that launch cross-border attacks
  • Afghan officials deny state complicity, insisting Pakistan’s security issues are an internal matter of Islamabad

ISLAMABAD: Pakistani security forces have killed six militants attempting to enter the country through its border with Afghanistan in the southwestern Balochistan province, the Pakistan military said on Thursday.
Islamabad frequently accuses neighboring Afghanistan of sheltering and supporting militant groups that launch cross-border attacks. The Taliban government in Kabul says it does not allow Afghan soil to be used by militants, insisting that Pakistan’s security issues are an internal matter of Islamabad.
In the latest incident, the Pakistan army said security forces had picked up on the movement of a group of militants who were attempting to infiltrate the Pakistan-Afghanistan border on the night between Jan 22. and 23 in Balochistan’s Zhob District. Six militants were killed, it said, and a large quantity of weapons, ammunition and explosives was recovered.
“Pakistan has consistently been asking Interim Afghan Government to ensure effective border management on their side of the border,” the army said. “Interim Afghan Government is expected to fulfill its obligations and deny the use of Afghan soil by Khwarij for perpetuating acts of terrorism against Pakistan.”
The Pakistani Taliban, or the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), have frequently targeted Pakistani forces in the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. The group also has some presence in Balochistan, the site of a low-level insurgency for decades by separatists fighting for the province’s independence. 
On Jan. 19, Pakistani security forces killed five militants as they tried to infiltrate Pakistan’s border in Zhob district.


No talks with India on resumption of trade, Pakistan foreign office says

Updated 23 January 2025
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No talks with India on resumption of trade, Pakistan foreign office says

  • In 2019, Indian PM Modi withdrew Indian-administered Kashmir’s autonomy to tighten grip over the territory
  • Move provoked outrage in Pakistan and the downgrading of diplomatic ties and suspension of bilateral trade

KARACHI: The Pakistani Foreign Office said on Thursday Islamabad and New Delhi were not holding talks to resume trade, suspended in 2019 when India revoked the special status of the part of Kashmir that it controls and split the region into two federally administered territories.
The disputed Himalayan region is claimed in full, though ruled in part by both India and Pakistan since their independence from Britain in 1947, with the nuclear-armed neighbors having fought two of their three wars over the territory.
In 2019, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi withdrew Indian-administered Kashmir’s autonomy in order to tighten his grip over the territory, provoking outrage in Pakistan and the downgrading of diplomatic ties and suspension of bilateral trade.
Speaking to reporters at the Indian embassy in Washington this week, Indian Foreign Minister Dr. Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said no talks on trade resumption had been held between his country and Pakistan.
“Pakistan decided to suspend bilateral trade in response to India’s illegal and unilateral actions of 5 August 2019 relating to ... Kashmir,” Shafqat Ali Khan, the spokesperson for Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told Arab News when asked to respond to the Indian minister’s comments. 
“High level engagement between Pakistan and India remains suspended at the moment. In that backdrop, both sides are not holding talks on resumption of trade.”
Khan said the volume of bilateral trade between Pakistan and India stood at $1.907 billion in the financial year 2018-19. He said India had in 2019 withdrawn the Most-Favored Nation status granted to Pakistan and imposed 200 percent duty on all Pakistani items, “posing a serious setback to Pakistan’s exports.”
Speaking on Wednesday, Jaishankar said it was Pakistan that had suspended trade.
“Their [Pakistan] government took a decision in 2019 not to conduct trade with India, that was from their side,” Jaishankar said. 
“Our concern regarding this issue from the beginning was that we should get MFN status. We used to give MFN status to Pakistan, they didn’t give [it] to us.”
For decades, the armies of India and Pakistan have faced off over the the Line of Control (LoC), a UN-monitored ceasefire line agreed in 1972, that divides the areas each administers.
The foes fought a 1999 battle along the LoC that some analysts described as an undeclared war. Their forces exchanged regular gunfire over the LoC until a truce in late 2003, which has largely held since.


PM launches World Bank’s $20 billion Country Partnership Framework for Pakistan

Updated 23 January 2025
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PM launches World Bank’s $20 billion Country Partnership Framework for Pakistan

  • 10-year-plan will focus on development issues like impact of climate change and boosting private-sector growth
  • Last year, Pakistan secured $7 billion IMF loan deal though Sharif has vowed to reduce dependence on foreign loans

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Thursday launched the World Bank’s Country Partnership Framework (CPF) for Pakistan, a plan to focus $20 billion in loans to the cash-strapped nation over the coming decade on development issues like the impact of climate change and boosting private-sector growth.
Pakistan in 2023 nearly defaulted on the payment of foreign debts when the International Monetary Fund rescued it by agreeing to a $3 billion bailout to Pakistan. Last year, Islamabad secured a new $7 billion loan deal from the IMF. Since then, the country’s economy has started improving with weekly inflation coming down from 27 percent in 2023 to 1.8 percent earlier this month. Sharif has vowed to reduce dependence on foreign loans in the coming years.
The World Bank’s lending for Pakistan will start in 2026 and focus on six outcomes: improving education quality, tackling child stunting, boosting climate resilience, enhancing energy efficiency, fostering inclusive development and increasing private investment.
“Together, this partnership fosters a unified and focused vision for your county around six outcomes with clear, tangible and ambitious 10-year targets,” Martin Raiser, the World Bank vice president for South Asia, said in an address at the launch ceremony of the loan program. 

World Bank Vice President for South Asia Martin Raiser (right) presents a copy of booklet of World Bank’s Country Partnership Framework for Pakistan to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif during the launching ceremony in Islamabad on January 23, 2025. (Photo courtesy: PMO)

 “We hope that the CPF will serve as an anchor for this engagement to keep us on the right track. Partnerships will equally be critical. More resources will be needed to have the impact at the scale that we wish to achieve and this will require close collaboration with all the development partners.”
Speaking at the ceremony, PM Sharif said the CPF was a “vision to transform Pakistan’s economy, building climate resilient projects, alleviating poverty and unemployment and promoting digitization, agriculture and IT led initiatives.”
Separately, Raiser met Ahad Cheema, Pakistani minister for economic affairs, to discuss in detail the framework’s next steps and its implementation. 
“The two leaders also discussed the need to address key challenges in project implementation, such as land acquisition, project start-up delays, and ensuring compliance with social safeguards,” Cheema’s office said in a statement.
“Cheema stressed that effective coordination between the World Bank and other development partners, as well as streamlined approval processes, would be essential to overcoming these hurdles.”
Cheema also called on the World Bank to enhance Pakistan’s allocation of concessional resources, especially in support of climate change mitigation and foreign debt management.


Afghans in Pakistan awaiting US resettlement feel betrayal after Trump order

Updated 23 January 2025
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Afghans in Pakistan awaiting US resettlement feel betrayal after Trump order

  • Nearly 1,660 Afghans cleared by US government to resettle are having flights canceled 
  • President Trump on inauguration day passed an order suspending US refugee programs

ISLAMABAD: A decision by President Donald Trump’s administration to halt visa processing for refugees has caused uncertainty and shock at an English school for Afghans in Islamabad who are awaiting resettlement in the United States.
Normally enthusiastic students were quiet or crying in class after the news broke on Tuesday, said Sayed Hasseb Ullah, a 20-year-old teacher whose application for resettlement in the US is in process.
Some feel betrayed, with many — including those who fled Taliban rule in Afghanistan — having already spent years in limbo.
“It was really a horrible moment for us. We have been waiting for almost three years and there is no hope anymore,” he told Reuters at the school in Pakistan’s capital.
The sudden delay has upended the plans of many Afghans in Pakistan and left them in despair after undergoing extensive vetting and making preparations for new lives in the US

Syed Hasseb Ullah, 20-year-old Afghan citizen and a teacher, who is in the process for resettlement in the US speaks during an interview with Reuters on the outskirts of Islamabad, Pakistan on January 22, 2025. (REUTERS)

In an intermediate language class, about half of which had US visa applications in process, a 16-year-old girl broke down in tears.
“I feel very bad from this news,” she said, unable to focus on her work — practicing a list of English phrases for giving formal presentations that was written on the class whiteboard.
She hopes to enroll in high school in the US after being barred from pursuing her education at school in Afghanistan.
The tutoring academy, which has roughly 300 students, is one of the few spaces available for studying for many Afghans waiting for US visas. They cannot legally work or formally study in Pakistan.
Shawn VanDiver, the founder of #AfghanEvac, the leading coalition of resettlement and veterans groups, said there were 10,000-15,000 Afghans in Pakistan waiting for special immigration visas or resettlement in the US as refugees.
Many have waited for years after being instructed when applying to travel to a third country for processing. For many the only option was Pakistan, which borders Afghanistan but, facing economic and security crises, began deporting tens of thousands of Afghans in 2023.
A spokesperson for Pakistan’s foreign ministry did not immediately respond to request for comment on the US announcement.
FLIGHTS CANCELLED?
Nearly 1,660 Afghans cleared by the US government to resettle in the US, including family members of active-duty US military personnel, are having their flights canceled under the order suspending US refugee programs, Reuters reported on Monday.
One of Hasseb Ullah’s students, Fatima, has no idea whether an official email she received on Jan. 14 — and seen by Reuters — seeking documents to proceed with her family’s travel arrangements for the US is still valid.
The 57-year-old women’s rights and development advocate who worked for years for US-funded organizations in central Daikundi province began learning English a few months ago.
She said she had previously never imagined leaving Afghanistan and that she and many others had trusted the US — which spent two decades leading foreign forces in Afghanistan, backing the now-collapsed government and spending billions of dollars on human rights and development programs.
“You supported us at that time and raised us up so we worked with you and after that you invited us to a third country (for visa processing) and now you are doing something like this,” she said.
In addition to concerns about her own safety following her advocacy work, Fatima is particularly worried about her 15-year-old daughter. She hopes she can enroll in school in the US after years out of high school, and that her 22-year-old daughter can complete her engineering degree.
Many students and teachers said they had contacted UN agencies and the US embassy this week and were sharing any information they could find on the Internet in WhatsApp groups. But there were few clear answers.
The US embassy and State Department did not immediately provide comment in request to a question from Reuters on whether the new order would affect Afghans waiting in Pakistan for visas.
“We have been living here for three years with a hope of going to America to be safe but now when President Donald Trump came ... and told us we will not process these case or maybe we will delay it, indeed you feel betrayed,” Hasseb Ullah said.
“I just wanted to tell them respectfully that we have helped you and now we expect help back from you.”