ISLAMABAD, April 16: The Indus River System Authority finally agreed on Tuesday to release water to provinces on actual average annual use basis of 1977-82 until disputed clauses of the 1991 water accord were interpreted by a higher forum.
The decision was conveyed to the chief executive secretariat here on Tuesday following serious differences between the chairman Irsa and members of the three provinces namely Punjab, NWFP and Balochistan.
IRSA sources told Dawn that the CE secretariat had sought minutes of April 10 of the advisory committee meeting of the IRSA after publication of last week’s stormy meeting.
These sources said that Chairman Noor Mohammad Baloch had informed IRSA members that he was sending the decision which he had noted down after the April 10 meeting that distribution should be made on the historic use basis for a month only.
The members of Punjab, NWFP and Balochistan threatened the chairman that if the minority decision of the chairman was conveyed to the CE secretariat, they reserved the right to submit a separate report entailing the views they had expressed in the advisory committee meeting.
However, the chairman consulted Sindh government over the weekend in Karachi and agreed to the other members’ view that distribution should be made on historic use basis without restricting it for a month.
Specifically, Punjab was suspicious that if the time limit of one month was included in the decision, it would automatically amount to surrendering the distribution principle on the basis of historic uses in case of shortages.
The technical committee of Irsa that had earlier refused to implement the decision of the chairman Irsa for being a minority decision has also been informed accordingly. In this way the recommendations of the technical committee meeting held on March 27 now finally stand ratified.
The technical committee had recommended the filling of Mangla dam and releases to Sindh on the basis of “existing actual average annual uses” of 1977-1982 commonly known as historic uses.
The advisory committee meeting held on April 10 to ratify this recommendation had remained inconclusive due to division within the members. However, the technical committee meeting continued releases on the basis of its own decision.
The technical committee was of the view that the question relating to interpretation of controversial section 14 (b) of the water accord was pending with the chief executive secretariat and till such a higher forum reached a conclusion the provincial allocation would continue to be based on historic uses.
Meanwhile, an Irsa source confirmed that the authority had received a letter from Punjab asking the Irsa to investigate as to how water losses have touched a staggering figure of 70 per cent between Sukkur and Kotri. He however said that IRSA did not take any action so far.
