ISLAMABAD, Aug 19: The Sindh government has filed written objections to the federal government on the award of contracts to two joint ventures to conduct studies on water requirement downstream Kotri and its environmental impact.

A senior official of the water and power ministry told Dawn that Sindh's main objection related to a component company of the joint venture which had earlier conducted similar studies on behalf of the Punjab irrigation department.

He said that the Sindh government had other objections, too, but did not elaborate. He said that the federal government had convened a meeting of provincial chief secretaries, secretaries of provincial irrigation departments, chief engineering adviser of the federal government and chairman of Irsa to discuss Sindh's objections.

Water and Power Minister Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao and the secretary water and power would also attend the meeting. Sources said that the Sindh government held that it could not accept studies as fair and independent.

The federal government is presently conducting three separate studies on the question of water requirements downstream Kotri on recommendations of the parliamentary committee on water resources led by Senator Nisar Memon.

These studies include water requirement downstream Kotri to check sea intrusion, environmental impact of the escapages below Kotri and the overall impact of these escapages on the country's environment as a whole.

The contract for two separate studies of the water requirement downstream Kotri have been awarded by the Indus River System Authority (Irsa) to two joint ventures of engineering consultants.

The provincial governments had agreed in 1991 to conduct two studies on the water esca pages down stream Kotri but failed since then to start work on these studies owing to wide differences over terms of reference of the respective studies.

The parliamentary committee on water resources had announced that three different studies would address concerns of the two major provinces - Sindh and Punjab - that would lead to consensus building on construction of the water reservoirs.

Meanwhile, sources said that the parliamentary committee had finalized preparations to give a presentation in a joint meeting to the president, the prime minister and the Senate chairman and the speaker of the National Assembly soon after Shaukat Aziz is sworn in as the next prime minister.