October 10, 2001	Wednesday	Rajab 22, 1422

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ISLAMABAD, Oct 9: An advisory committee of the Indus River System Authority on Tuesday rejected Sindh’s demands for sharing of water shortages by all the four provinces and determining the provincial shares as per the proportions laid down in the Water Accord of 1991.

Both of these demands were turned down at the advisory committee meeting which was held here on Tuesday, a source said. The demand of distributing water according to the proportion fixed in the 1991 Accord was rejected despite the fact that the federal government in June, this year had issued an advise for the implementation of the accord.

The authority had put off implementation of the accord in view of the fact that a growers body from Punjab had filed an application against the advise in the Supreme Court asking for a suo motu action.

The issue is likely to be raised by Sindh at the authority’s meeting being held on Wednesday.

At present the shortage of water is shared only by Punjab and Sindh which are the two major recipients of the irrigation water while Balochistan and NWFP are supplied full quota of their share as their shares are comparatively very small.

Sindh has been demanding that the shortages should be shared by all the provinces.

The advisory committee also rejected a demand of Balochistan that in the current Rabi season it should be compensated for the 26 per cent less water supplied to it in the last Kharif season.

However, the advisory committee upheld a demand made by Punjab that the filling of Mangla dam should begin by the mid of March.

Earlier an IRSA press release said the advisory committee discussed and finalized the recommendations of the technical committee regarding likely water availability situation for the current Rabi season.

The meeting was presided over by chairman IRSA and member Punjab Mian Hafiz Ullah and was attended by all the members of the IRSA, irrigation secretaries of all the four provinces, representatives of the federal flood commission and member water and member power Wapda and secretary IRSA.

After the detailed deliberations, the advisory committee approved the anticipated water availability and operation criteria for the current rabi cropping season.

It was, however, advised the chief engineer IRSA to interact with member (Water) Wapda in order to sort out the minor differences in the projected probabilities of the Rim Station Inflows and the total water availability.

The provinces should then be informed of the situational forecast as accurately as possible to prepare their cropping plans.