LAHORE: The Real Time Flow Monitoring System (RTFMS), which the Punjab started putting up on all barrages and canals, will be complete within the current fiscal year, as 80 per cent of civil works has been completed and electrical equipment arrived on locations.

According to the officials overseeing the work, the $42 million project will help the province get real-time flows at remote sites and involved instantaneous transmission of data to the central station and its instant dissemination to all stakeholders.

The spread of the programme sheds some light on the utility of the plan. The officials said monitoring sensor will be installed at more than 155 sites located on barrages, link canals and canal network of Eastern Sadiqia Canal System. Under this system, 63 data loggers, 99 ultrasonic sensors and 56 radar sensors will be installed for monitoring and communication of surface data along with 10 ground water sensors along with 10 rain gauge stations. This system will help collect data of water levels automatically, convert to canal discharges and transmit data to the Irrigation Department at central office.

They further claimed this was the most efficient way of flow monitoring on the basis of which better decisions could be taken for improved management of irrigation water resources.

“Any variation in flows intentional or unintentional can easily be detected and measures can be suggested to rectify any anomaly,” said Habibullah Bodla, monitoring chief at the Programme Monitoring and Implementation Unit of the Punjab Irrigation Department.

Project to collect water level data automatically sent to central office

He said the World Bank-funded ‘Improvement and Modernisation of the Irrigation and Water Management System’ project, which includes Development of Water Resource Management Information System, Decision Support System and installation of RTFMS would go a long way in helping improve water governance in Punjab.

Drawing their reference from the almost-defunct telemetry system, which was installed at the turn of the century and helped create more controversies than resolving issues, critics feared that the new project might go the same route.

“The World Bank officials normally conceive high-tech programmes that hardly match the ground realities of rural Pakistan where irrigation system is more than a 100 years old and barely been maintained, let alone rehabilitated. How can this century-old system respond to technologically advanced monitoring systems,” wondered a former head of the Research and Development Wing of the Irrigation Department.

He said that was precisely the problem with telemetry system, which yielded grossly wrong data and created more schism than consensus in national water governance. This system might not create division at the national level because would provide data for provincial consumption. Accuracy and reliability of the data, even in the provincial context, remained to be seen.

He further said telemetry system readings and manual system data differed widely because the barrages, canals and link canals were not up to the mark. It was not to oppose installation of modern systems on canals or barrages, but only to argue that these systems needed certain level of efficiency and smooth flow at the points they are put up at. If that was missing, results would not be accurate. Punjab should first upgrade its barrages and canals and then start modernisation, he suggested, adding that “otherwise, it would only add $42 million to its debt without getting the benefits”.

Published in Dawn, February 21st, 2017