KARACHI, April 11: Provincial Secretary Irrigation and Power, Imtiaz Qazi, has refuted the claim by Chairman, Indus River System Authority (Irsa), Nasar Rajput, that Sindh and Punjab have reached an agreement on sharing the water available for downstream Kotri.

“This is not true. No such agreement has been reached between the two provinces. On the contrary, there was no such item on the agenda of Irsa meeting which was called to discuss the availability of water for early Kharif season,” he categorically stated at a press conference at his office on Friday.

“We are astonished over the wrong statement of Mr Rajput who represents federal government. His statement has been contradicted by the Punjab representative also, Mr Qazi said.

He told newsmen that since this misleading statement had created an unwanted situation, Sindh had approached the competent authority for the holding of a meeting of Irsa committee in order to remove any misunderstandings.

On Sindh government’s point of view over the water apportionment under Water Accord 1991, the secretary said, “We do stand by Water Accord 1991 and will not favour even the change of a comma in it.”

Sindh will not share with any province even a single drop of water earmarked for discharge downstream Kotri, he declared in unequivocal terms, and added, “Nobody in Irsa has the authority to change the Water Accord.”

Mr Qazi said that during the Irsa meeting, it was assessed that 18 MAF water would be available in early Kharif whereas 44 MAF water was expected to be available in late Kharif, from June 11 to Sept 30. To a query, he said water availability situation was better this year than the previous years.— PPI