IRSA calls for water inspectors posting at barrages, headworks

ISLAMABAD: The Indus River System Authority (IRSA) has issued instructions for posting water inspectors at nine barrages and water headworks, ARY News reported on Tuesday.

Chairman IRSA, Rao Irshad Ali, has dispatched a letter to the Water & Power Development Authority (WAPDA) for an immediate posting of inspectors at the water works along the course of the river.

IRSA has called for water inspectors appointment at Taunsa, Rasul, Maralla, Trimmu, Punjnad headworks and the Chashma Barrage in Punjab.

The IRSA chief has also directed for deployment of technical experts at Guddu, Sukkur and Kotri barrages in Sindh and stressed for the need of an effective monitoring system for distribution of the water resources.

The authority’s chairman has also directed the Ministry of Water Resources to address the differences among provinces over distribution of the river water.

“Technical experts should be posted for transparent distribution of the water resources”.

“The National Assembly’s water resources committee had directed for making the water distribution transparent”, chairman IRSA said.

The water inspectors would also compile the figures of the water distribution, according to the letter.

The IRSA had recently slashed the water share of Sindh and Punjab due to an “excessive” shortage of water in the country.

After the reduction in water share, Punjab is getting 83,000 cusecs, while Sindh is being provided 74,000 cusecs of water, the authority said in a statement.

The decision was taken in a meeting chaired by the IRSA chairman to review water distribution among provinces.

Due to prevailing limited storage available in reservoirs and tumbling river inflows it was inevitable to apply cut on provincial shares, the water body said in the statement.

A tug of war between the IRSA members from Sindh and Punjab over water distribution touched a new high over the opening of Taunsa-Punjnad link canal from Indus at a time when the low riparian federating units are craving for water even for drinking purpose.