Hundreds of people participated in a protest against the proposed new canals on the Indus River in Sukkur in Pakistan’s Sindh province on Saturday, March 1. The protest was a part of the ongoing movement against the controversial Green Pakistan Initiative (GPI) project.
The protest was led by Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, leader of the Bulhan Bachao (Save the Dolphins) who has been on an indefinite sit-in protest against the GPI and Cholistan canal projects for weeks now. He addressed the gathering alongside leaders from the Haqooq-e-Khalq Party (HKP) and the Sindh landless farmers struggle committee, among others.
Bhutto highlighted how the fight against the new canals on the Indus is a fight to save the river, as well as the people dependent on it for their agricultural and life-sustaining needs. It is a fight for the rights of people over their land and water, he said in a post on X.
Other speakers during the protest reiterated that the movement will continue until the proposed plan to build six new canals on the Indus River and its tributaries is completely scrapped.
The Pakistani government, along with the country’s army, launched the GPI last year with the objective of initiating large-scale corporate farming on thousands of acres of arid land in the Cholistan region of Punjab province. It includes a proposal to build six new canals on the Indus and its tributaries for the irrigation of the project.
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The plan is opposed by the people in the Sindh province, which lies in the lower riparian region of the river. They fear that new canals would divert more water from the river, leading to frequent droughts in the province.
Widespread protests
Bhutto launched the sit-in last month in Sukkur. Apart from Bhutto’s sit-in, several other protests have been going on against the GPI and Cholistan projects in Sindh province with several opposition parties including the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) also joining in. Led by the left groups in the country, a large gathering was organized in Bhit Shah last month under the leadership of the Pakistan Kissan Rabita Committee.
Some protests are also led by students and farmers who have been mobilizing in large numbers against the alleged corporate loot of the country’s resources as well as environmental damage caused by the GPI.
Farmers in the region have claimed the project threatens their land rights and that if the project is implemented in full it will lead to the displacement of a large number of people.
Left leaders have called the project a fraud, arguing that it will not only lead to displacement and cause significant ecological imbalance but also strain the relationship between Sindh and Punjab, Pakistan’s two major provinces.
Meanwhile, Senior Minister in Sindh’s government, Sharjeel Inam Memon, stated on Sunday that no new canals will be built on the Indus River, as his Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) government in Sindh has ensured that no such project is undertaken at the expense of the interests of Sindh’s farmers.
The PPP is supporting the federal government, led by Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz), as part of an alliance called Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM). However, the party has claimed that the project was initiated despite its objections.
In a report published in the Dawn newspaper on Monday, Pakistan’s Federal Minister for Planning, Development, and Special Initiatives, Ahsan Iqbal, stated that the new canals would be constructed as per the original plan—a stance that appears to differ from the Sindh government’s statement. He also confirmed that Indus River System Authority (IRSA) has confirmed the water supply to Cholistan project.
