Opting for consensus rather than contention, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and PPP leader Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari agreed to go forward with the controversial Cholistan canal only if the provinces agreed. Previously, the military-backed Green Pakistan Initiative (GPI) had become a political flashpoint, with protests escalating across Sindh.

Critics have warned that the canal projects threaten ecological stability, violate interprovincial water agreements, and risk displacing communities, all without sufficient consultation or safeguards. It is not only the farmers and the people who are affected; it affects all living creatures associated.

“This is not a people-centred initiative. It’s a for-profit scheme for cash crop irrigation,” says Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Jr., an environmental activist. He emphasised that when river water stops reaching the sea, it breaks the hydrological cycle. “We are the birds and trees. We depend on the land being affected.”

Environmentalists argue the Indus ecosystem has already been pushed to the brink. “We’ve destroyed natural habitats across the Indus Basin,” says Adil Mansoor, a researcher in farm economics. “The floods of 2010 and 2022 showed us that the cultivation of riverine and belt areas has severely obstructed natural water flow.”

‘The capital outlay and recurring operational costs are prohibitive — without sustained subsidies, the Cholistan canal project is unlikely to remain viable’

The GPI, a multi-billion dollar national programme, aims to cultivate desert land by irrigating state-owned wastelands through new canal infrastructure. The plan spans multiple provinces, including the Cholistan Canal in Punjab, Chashma........

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