ISLAMABAD, Oct 2: The Indus River System Authority on Thursday failed to finalise water management plan for the Rabi season as provinces did not agree over the water shortage figures.

Sources told Dawn that there was a lack of confidence among participants as all provinces came up with divergent figures for the water shortage.

For the first time in Irsa’s history, the technical committee meeting was presided over by the Irsa chairman in view of the absence of the authority’s chief engineer. The post of chief engineer is lying vacant for the last six months.

All Irsa members attended the technical committee’s meeting on special invitation. Normally, the Irsa’s technical committee meeting is presided over by chief engineer and attended by irrigation secretaries of the provinces.

The sources said according to Sindh estimates there would be no shortage of water at all during the Rabi season and hence the distribution of water shares should be made under para-2 of the 1991 water accord.

Chairman Irsa, Nasar Ali Rajput, who himself belongs to Sindh, refused to discuss the question whether the distribution should be on the basis of para-2 or 14(b) of the 1991 accord saying neither it was the right forum for such discussions nor the issue was on the technical committee meeting’s agenda.

On the other hand, Irsa had projected shortages during Rabi at 11 per cent while the Punjab and Wapda had projected seven per cent and 14 per cent shortages respectively, the sources said.

In view of wide divergence of views on water availability calculations, the meeting decided to put together all figures and analyse them in the light of forecasts and river flows again in two day’s time and present before the advisory committee meeting to be held on Oct 10.

The advisory committee would then finalise the availability and probabilities and fix provincial shares for the Rabi season. The advisory committee meeting that held during the first week of September had also ended in a failure over the future forecasts and water distributions.

Secretary Irsa Sohail Ali Khan also confirmed to Dawn that the meeting of technical committee had remained “inconclusive” because of difference of figures of probabilities and hence these figures would be assessed and presented to the advisory committee on Oct 10 for a decision.

Sources said the Sindh representatives also insisted that filling of Mangla dam should start after Tarbela dam but was informed that since Jhelum river was early riser, it has to be filled earlier accordingly. Representatives of the Wapda, Nespak and federal flood commission also attended the meeting.