LAHORE: Punjab has demanded that the Indus River System Authority (Irsa) must go by the book in distribution of the available water instead of bowing to pressure tactics by a province.

“Water distribution (among federating units) is a technical issue and Irsa must handle it technically instead of bowing to walkout and boycott tactics being adopted by Sindh province representatives in the meetings of the authority,” Punjab Irrigation Minister Mohsin Leghari told a press conference here on Monday.

Representatives of Sindh had walked out of the Irsa meeting held on Sept 30 when three other provinces agreed that water losses should be shared as per 1991 Water Accord. Next sitting of the body is due on Oct 6 (Wednesday).

Mr Leghari said Sindh had consumed 3.42 million acre feet (MAF) over and above its share for the Kharif crops by reporting over 30 per cent more water losses downstream Guddu than the permissible limit of 15pc set by Irsa against 4pc losses on Indus in Punjab.

He said Punjab had been demanding in the Irsa meetings that the water losses above the permissible limit must be counted among the share of the province but the authorities took a lenient view of the matter.

This exorbitant water loss has now led to 28pc water shortfall for 2021-22 Rabi season crops, mainly wheat, threatening food security of the country, he added.

The minister bemoaned that despite severe shortage experienced during this early Kharif season, 25,000 cusecs of water was allowed to flow down Kotri in total disregard to the Irsa approved plan and thus para 14(e) of the Water Accord 1991 was violated.

He said Irsa must now act decisively to address the issue of reported losses as it directly impacted the water available for distribution to other provinces.He demanded that losses for Rabi 2021-22 should be taken as zero until actual measurement of discharges under tripartite agreement as agreed upon by all the provinces and subsequently notified on July 5, 2021.

Mr Leghari also demanded that if a province does not allow discharge measurement at any site indicated by Irsa or any province, the excessive losses by that province should be added to its water account.

Published in Dawn, October 5th, 2021