ISLAMABAD: The water regulation and irrigation authorities have found unprecedented variations in river flow records, resulting in disharmony among provinces and massive water losses.

According to an official of the Ministry of Water and Power, “disappearance of Indus water” upstream Tarbela Dam and “erroneous flow measurement by Wapda at Chashma Barrage” had become so serious that the Indus River System Authority had to convene a special meeting a few days ago to look into the situation.

He said Sindh, Balochistan and Punjab had protested over huge water losses between Besham and Tarbela and faulty measurements at Chashma.

Sindh, Balochistan and Punjab have protested over huge water losses between Besham and Tarbela

In a fresh protest, the Sindh government reminded Irsa that erroneous recording of water discharges and more than 50 per cent losses to the province had not changed despite a number of corrective measures ordered by the authority two weeks ago.

Sindh has also complained against wrong measurements between the Chashma and Taunsa and Taunsa and Guddu barrages, showing more than 50,000 cusec variation, disappearance or unauthorised diversion.

The dispute between Irsa and the Water and Power Development Authority over correctness of data had worsened, the official said on Friday.

He said Irsa had noted the two burning issues, “the causes of which had just been unearthed and any further delay in action on them would cause inter-provincial disharmony besides the worst catastrophe in the agricultural economy.”

He said it was against this background that Minister for Water and Power Khwaja Mohammad Asif had asked Wapda to play the role of a focal organisation to remove apprehensions of provinces over distribution of water.

However, the official said, the hasty action by the minister might aggravate the situation because the law required Irsa to regulate water distribution and in that sense Wapda itself was an agency under it.

An Irsa meeting presided over by Chairman Muhammad Naseem Bazai and attended by representatives of Wapda, Nespak and the provinces noted with concern the disappearance of Indus water between Besham and Tarbela Dam. “The incoming information on various gauging stations along the river was keenly observed and during the course an astonishing variation in discharge measurement in the range of 33 per cent was observed,” Mr Bazai said.

He said the measuring site at Besham, set up by Wapda, was 141km upstream Tarbela and it took just seven hours for the discharge to reach the dam, yet the recording variation was so huge.

On the contrary, the figure between Tarbela and Kotri, involving 1,451 kilometres and 13 days, was less than 20pc.

Representatives of Wapda conceded its errors that were made part of the minutes of the meeting.

Know more: Wapda to address provinces’ fears over water distribution

Mr Bazai said that when the topography of the two sites was cleared, it was found that water losses to the extent of 45,000 cusec a day were on the “far excessive or higher side” despite the fact that the river between Besham and Tarbela was steep hilly against shallow and mild slope and soil of Tarbela-Kotri region being composed of varying admixture of silt and sand with high permeability.

Wapda and Nespak engineers and provincial experts agreed that losses between Besham and Tarbela in the worst case scenario should be 1.5-3pc and the 33pc difference was not only shocking but unacceptable.

The Irsa chairman reported that “serious complaints had been lodged by the provinces since June 6, 2014 with Irsa, particularly by Sindh and Balochistan, that they had not been receiving the authorised share against their 10 daily discharges, alleging its exploitation at Taunsa Barrage”.

This resulted in protest rallies by farmers and politicians, including some MNAs, from Sindh.

Mr Bazai said these lawmakers had issued strong statements alleging “that the Punjab province in connivance with Irsa was not only stealing but committing robbery on Sindh’s water”, affecting Kharif crops and causing drinking water problems.

On cross-checking, it emerged that Wapda reported discharges at Chashma at 210,170 cusec on a day when the actual discharges were 166,581 cusec (reported by Nespak), leaving a gap of about 44,000 cusec. Irsa was “wonder struck about the reasons of the enormous en route losses which went as high as 20 per cent (at Chashma) against the five-year average loss of 8 per cent”, the chairman said.

In order to compensate Sindh, Irsa had to release extra water from Tarbela Dam despite serious shortages at the dam and in the Indus to meet the demand in the province, he said.

Published in Dawn, July 12th, 2014