15 September 2004	Wednesday	29 Rajab 1425

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LAHORE, Sept 14: Punjab rejected on Tuesday the water distribution plan of the Indus River System Authority for September, calling it "unilateral and harmful."

In a letter sent to Irsa, Punjab Irrigation Secretary Javed Majeed said that the formula was different from the one agreed upon at the Sept 4 meeting which was chaired by the prime minister.

"If Irsa is allowed to go ahead with its plan, there will be no water for the Trimmu and Sutlej valleys and the cotton crop on over three million acres will be affected," he said. Punjab irrigation officials also accused Irsa of increasing the water discharge level for Sindh to over 100,000 cusecs against its share of 49,800 cusecs.

The secretary said that during the meeting with the prime minister, all provincial irrigation ministers had agreed to consume more than their share till Sept 10 and after that use the run-of-river water for the rest of the month. It was designed to save the standing cotton crop, he added.

Criticizing Irsa's new water sharing formula, he said that only five-million-acre-foot water was available in dams and it would be hardly sufficient to meet Sindh's requirements and Punjab would be left without any water from dams.

Out of the run-of-river supplies, he said that 76,100 cusecs would be left for Punjab and Sindh after deducting 11,700 cusecs for the NWFP and Balochistan. As much as 49,800 cusecs would go to Sindh and 26,800 cusecs to Punjab.