Senior Minister Sharjeel Inam Memon on Sunday urged the federal government to take notice of Indus River Systems Authority’s (Irsa) “unjust reduction of Sindh’s share” and ensure that Sindh received its rightful share of water.
A 22 per cent water shortage has been persisting in Sindh for the last ten days as Irsa continues its efforts to “equalise shortages between Punjab and Sindh”.
“We are adjusting excessive use [of water] by Sindh and trying to equalise shortages between the two provinces by June 10. Secondly, water position is not satisfactory in rivers. Now with the increase in temperature, it is hoped that we will be able to increase water releases shortly afterwards,” Irsa Director Operations Khalid Idrees Rana earlier told Dawn.
But Sindh Senior Minister Memon posted on X that Irsa’s “continued disregard for Sindh’s legitimate concerns and the unjust reduction of Sindh’s share under the guise of ‘shortage equalisation’ is unacceptable and contrary to the spirit of the 1991 Water Apportionment Accord. No province can be given preference at the expense of another”.
He urged the Centre to take immediate notice of this situation and ensure “Sindh receives its rightful share of water in accordance with the law”.
“The PPP and Sindh Government will continue to defend Sindh’s water rights at every constitutional, legal and democratic forum,” he added.
The minister said Sindh “is facing a severe water shortage, with shortages reaching 22pc across the province, 42pc at Guddu Barrage and 29pc at Kotri Barrage”.
“This is not only threatening our agricultural sector but also endangering water supply all over Sindh, including Karachi, Pakistan’s economic hub,” he said.
He also shared a letter that was addressed to the Irsa director operations and signed by Sindh Irrigation Department’s director of regulation.
The letter, dated May 23, said: “Sindh Province’s indent has not been met since May 16, 2026. While the requested indent was 95,000 cusecs (May 16–20) and 110,000 cusecs (May 21–25), Irsa has restricted downstream Chashma releases for Sindh province to just 80,000 and 85,000 cusecs for those periods, which will impact the water supplies to Sindh province during the critical period of Early Kharif Season.
“In addition to Sindh’s unmet indent, the Chashma-Jhelum (CJ) link canal and Taunsa-Panjnad (TP) link canal are currently extracting 11,500 cubic feet per second (cfs) and 8,337cfs from the Main Indus Arm.”
It added that it was a matter of “great concern that Irsa is not supplying the required indent to Sindh Province at this vital juncture”.
The letter highlighted that the demand for irrigation during the Kharif sowing period was escalating day by day, creating “significant distress” among the farming community.
“It is, therefore, requested that the indent of Sindh province may kindly be fulfilled and operation of CJ and TP link canals may be halted in order to prevent agricultural losses to Sindh’s farming community and to avert any adverse repercussions on the economy of Pakistan,” the letter concluded.
