In a meeting held on November 29, 2006, the federal government had decided to appoint international consultants under the supervision of a high-level committee to investigate the causes behind the failure of the computerised telemetry system.
More than a month after this crucial meeting, the ministry of water and power has not been able to formulate the terms of reference (TOR) for engagement of the consultant, who will look into differences in data collection, formulate a system for the discharge of water releases and do comparing with the manual discharge measurement.
This system had been installed at 23 important distribution points of our irrigation system by Wapda in pursuance of a federal cabinet decision in 2002 and was completed in December 2004. Since then it is lying unused as a result of reluctance of Wapda and Irsa to take it over and run it.
Wapda is the executing agency for the system. It was later to be operated and used by Irsa which till then had been manually monitoring the system. It claimed that the equipment was faulty; that there was an unbelievable disparity between the manual readings and the telemetric ones, and continued using the old method. This had led to the present deadlock, with Wapda accusing the Irsa officials of incompetence, and Irsa accusing Wapda of installing a faulty system.
The former federal minister for water and power, Aftab Ahmed Sherpao, had directed Wapda to continue to operate telemetry system till Irsa was equipped to take over the system. However, before this directive got enforced, the federal cabinet was reshuffled and Liaquat Ali Jatoi became minister for water and power. After this change and despite the President taking notice of delayed commissioning of the new system, it has not started working as yet.
The controversy started when WAPDA declared the system fully dependable. However, the provinces contested Wapda’s claim and did not start using the data due to their serious apprehensions regarding the calibration process. The provinces demanded that the system needed to be geared to their entire satisfaction and technical requirements before it could be declared dependable. They were of the view that in its present form, the system was unable to serve the purpose it was designed for.
They complain that the system is not working properly because it is not calibrated precisely and has been commissioned in haste. The calibration process of Indus basin like system, which is subject to great seasonal fluctuations, must take at least a year because it has to be scrupulously checked in seasons of high flood, low water supply and drought simultaneously. The system can only be then called fully operational after getting time-tested results.
The telemetry system will replace the manual system at the barrages and off-taking canals along river Indus and other rivers in Indus basin over which the provinces have serious reservations with regard to reported water discharges.
The calibration process, which Wapda was supposed to complete before handing it over to Irsa or the provincial irrigation departments, had not been completed as yet and the data which the system is transmitting is different from the manually collected figures. The new system has been installed at all the water points to take the reading, but it has to be fully calibrated and made credible. It will be considered reliable only when it starts matching the age-old manual reading system.
The developed countries have been using the telemetry system for the distribution of water due to its credibility and transparency for years. Indus river basin is one of the largest inter-connected irrigation systems. For quite some time, the real time information, equitable water distribution, sharing shortages and flood forecasting has been the operational bottlenecks of this complicated system.
In order to address this issues automatic telemetry system has been adopted to help evolve a better water management system, which takes into account all the shortcomings of the present manual procedures and processes.
The existing manual operation for managing the irrigation system of the country is conducted through indents over phone or fax. Decisions for water distribution are taken based on the information of water availability calculated manually at barrages and obtained over phone/fax by Irsa. Over the years, particularly last decade, this method is creating misunderstandings among the provinces.
Since the stakeholders get their share of water on the basis of this secondary information, the mistrust situation is inevitable. Further, the actual gate positions at each barrage/dam are not known and are not verifiable. Therefore, usually the provinces blame each other for stealing their water.
The objective of the telemetry system would be the availability of online information of water availability and flow of water at all dams and barrages. The secondary objective of the system is to build confidence among the provinces and to measure the water level, flow of water, gate position on the barrages and canals and immediate transmission of data on water.
More than an year ago while resolving this ownership dispute of telemetry system it was agreed between Wapda and Irsa to depute field officials of Wapda and provincial irrigation departments to jointly check the sites from March 30 to April 10 and compare the findings with the manual reading of daily water situation. This was to be followed by another joint inspection by senior officers of Irsa and Wapda through field visit, after which a report was to be submitted to the ministry of water and power and the prime minister’s secretariat regarding accuracy of the system. But unfortunately nothing is knownabout the joint investigation.
The water issue is one of the major problems for the federation. The telemetry system was one of the measures that is needed to ensure that no water theft takes place and that an atmosphere of goodwill and confidence takes root among the various provinces.