ISLAMABAD, April 10: The Sindh Irrigation and Power Department on Thursday denied contents of a briefing by the Indus River System Authority (IRSA) chairman that Sindh had agreed with Punjab to share water going downstream of Kotri.

In a statement faxed to Dawn, the officer on special duty of the irrigation and power department Sindh said: “Regarding sharing of water going downstream of Kotri, this matter was not even discussed.”

According to the statement the correct position was that the representative of Sindh pointed out that the sharing should be done as per allocation given in the Water Accord, but was informed that the chief executive’s secretariat had advised to maintain the status quo till final decision.

The Sindh representative also supported the distribution of water on accord basis, the official said.

He said: “The Sindh representative informed that the water available in early Kharif is already short of requirement and even if some water is shown in the ad hoc distribution, it will not be actually released downstream of Kotri. It was, therefore, suggested that distribution arrangements proposed may be corrected accordingly and the water may be apportioned as per para-2 of the accord.”

When contacted for comments, IRSA Chairman Nasar Ali Rajput was surprised over the claim of the Sindh representative. He said whatever was Sindh representative’s position during the meeting he had briefed the press honestly and had nothing else to add.

The sources said that Sindh irrigation representative had issued the statement when faced criticism at a meeting with army officials of 5-Corps headquarters in Karachi on Thursday because people downstream would be even unable to get drinking water during early Kharif.