May 6, 2005	Friday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 26, 1426

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ISLAMABAD, May 5: The President and the Prime Minister have expressed their serious concern over the technical problems in running of the Rs320 million telemetry system for irrigation monitoring, it has been learnt. A senior government official told Dawn that Federal Minister for Water and Power Liaquat Ali Jatoi conveyed this concern to the Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) and Indus River System Authority (IRSA) and Siemens (the contractor) here at a meeting that was convened to rectify the system.

The meeting, presided over by Mr Jatoi, directed the three stakeholders —Irsa, Wapda and Siemens — to fix all technical problems within 48 hours and report to the president and the prime minister about fault-free functioning of the system because it would go a long way in confidence-building process to construct new dams.

“The president and the prime minister are worried about the telemetry system and have desired that relevant agencies should understand their responsibilities,” a source quoted the minister as saying.

The sources said the Irsa and Wapda blamed each other for the faults but were told to work as a team to restore the system. The minister said that contractor had done a good job in other projects in the country and should take responsibility in the telemetry system as well in view of the importance of the project.

The contractor informed the meeting that it was required to provide maintenance under the warranty till 2006 but the capacity building of the Irsa officials would be required to run the project on a permanent basis.

The meeting was informed that software of the Irsa’s website was also facing some problems while power fluctuations also caused difficulties in accurate monitoring of water flows. The telemetry system of the Irsa had went out of order a couple of weeks ago and its website had been closed for general public.

The system was installed about two years ago to monitor flows and outflows at all the dams and barrages through an automatic electronic system to remove misgivings among the provinces over water theft etc.

The Irsa has appointed three consultants to probe into the matter at length and submit a report by July this year. They include specialists on hydrology, software and telecommunication. 0 - According to terms of reference, the consultants would hold a comprehensive investigation whether or not the installation of telemetry system had taken place as per terms and conditions of the contract.

The sources said the complaints about wrong reporting of the system continued pouring every day from almost all locations throughout the country. The provinces have asked the Irsa to overcome the situation.

The sources said the Kotri and Sukkur barrages were undergoing repair work and discharges have been closed but the system continued to show outflows.

Similarly, the censors at Tarbela were not functional owing to high-voltage power transmission. The Guddu and Pat Feeder canals were closed at the moment but the system was showing flows.