07 January 2005	Friday	25 Ziqa'ad 1425

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ISLAMABAD, Jan 6: The telemetry system installed at a cost of Rs33 million on dams, discharge points and flows in rivers has been facing problems in providing authentic data about the water situation, it is learnt.

Informed sources said that the contractor of the telemetry system had not been able to overcome calibration problems even after four months of taking over the responsibility of operation and maintenance as the system continued to give wrong information.

The contractor was given a six-month operation and maintenance contract at a cost of Rs8.8 million that would expire by early March. The federal government had installed the telemetry system last year at 23 main locations aimed at preventing misunderstandings among the provinces about the water releases and utilization of their respective water shares.

The installation of the system was also seen as a confidence building measure to start construction of dams. Federal Water and Power Minister Liaquat Ali Jatoi had inaugurated the system about two months ago.

A comparison of the data collected by the telemetry system and recorded manually on Thursday indicated variations. Some of the major discrepancies are as follows:

The release of water downstream Tarbela was manually recorded at 5,800 cusec, but the telemetry system showed it at 246 cusec. The manual reading showed water level and dead level of the Tarbela dam at 1414.54 cusec and river inflows at 20,300 cusec, but the telemetry system did not provide any such information.

The Indus River System Authority's manual system put the Mangla Dam's water discharge at 5,375 cusec while the telemetry system indicated it at 4,382 cusec. The manual reading by Irsa recorded flows in Kabul river at Nowshera at 14,300 cusec, but the telemetry system showed it at 19,743.

Talking to Dawn, an official in the water and power ministry admitted that the government was facing problems in proper calibration of the telemetry system. However, he said, the government might rehire the same contractor for another term to remove the technical problems in the telemetry system.