March 28, 2003	Friday	Muharram 24, 1424

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ISLAMABAD, March 27: With estimates of a maximum five per cent water shortage during the Kharif season, the technical committee of the Indus River System Authority (Irsa) has decided to release water from both Tarbela and Mangla dams on a proportionate basis.

The meeting, presided over by Irsa chief engineer Amanullah, was attended by Irsa secretary and representatives of four provinces and Wapda.

Sohail Ali Khan, the Irsa secretary, told reporters here on Thursday that distribution of water would be made on actual annual average basis commonly known as historic use basis till such time the matter was decided by higher authorities to share the shortage among the provinces.

The provincial representatives, however, agreed that Irsa authority had the power to distribute water among the provinces on water accord basis when it meets next week if the shortage was assumed at one per cent as suggested by Sindh.

He said all provinces generally agreed to the calculations made by Irsa on water availability and provincial share in three different situations and noted with satisfaction that shortage would not be as high as during the last three years and would be very nominal.

In the most likely scenario, water shortage would be four per cent in early Kharif and overall three per cent throughout the season. The shortage would be just one per cent during Kharif under a maximum availability estimate.

Comparing with last three years, the Irsa secretary said overall shortage in Kharif 2000 was 11 per cent, 22 per cent in early season. In 2001, overall shortage was recorded at 18 per cent but early Kharif shortage was 46 per cent. Similarly, early Kharif shortage was at 31 per cent and six per cent in the overall terms.

Mr Sohail said that Punjab was likely to get around 33.519 MAF (million acre feet) during Kharif against its average annual use of 34.647 MAF. Sindh was likely to get 27.294 MAF against the average annual use of 28.79 MAF water.

Balochistan and the NWFP would remain unaffected and get their share of 2.848 MAF and 0.823 MAF water respectively.

He said there was no major difference in calculations made by the provinces at their own but Sindh insisted that shortage should be assumed at the maximum availability scenario of 1 per cent and adjust the same with downstream Kotri situation and distribute water purely on accord basis.

Mr Sohail said that all participants agreed that this could be considered by the Irsa authority because it was out of the technical committee’s jurisdiction.

Mr Sohail said that the Punjab and Sindh would together have an anticipated water availability of 17.912 MAF in early Kharif season on total Indus system basis and 43.532 MAF in the later part of Kharif. The total anticipated availability of water in the whole indus system would be 61.444 MAF.

On the basis of actual annual uses, the share of two provinces should have been 18.674 MAF and 44.765 MAF in the early and later part of Kharif respectively and a total of 63.439 MAF.

He did not agree that Sindh was given less water than its share during the Rabi season and said the province was being given two to three times higher than its water share nowadays and it would get its complete share by March 31.

Mr Sohail said Sindh agitated that storage from Tarbela dam should not be depleted earlier than the Mangla dam because it was disadvantageous to Sindh. The technical committee agreed that water from both the dams would be released proportionately so as to cater to the next Rabi season.

In reply to a question, the Irsa secretary confirmed that the government had not yet released funds to make operational the telemetry system that was installed to remove inter-provincial mistrust.

He said the system had been installed, put on trial and feedback was satisfactory. However, two or three censors had yet to be installed along the Sindh-Balochistan boundary due to administrative problems.

He said both the provinces had been asked to address security issues so that the telemetry system could also be installed there.