KARACHI: The Sindh government has refused to allow the monitoring teams from the Indus River System Authority to monitor the barrages, reports citing sources said on Tuesday.
The provincial government expressed strong reservations on the constitution of the monitoring teams by the authority.
It said that the teams to monitor the discharge of water were formed unilaterally. “We will not allow monitoring of the barrages until impartial teams are formed,” a spokesperson for the government said.
Meanwhile, in a letter to IRSA, the provincial Irrigation Department has urged devising a framework for measuring the water level.
The authority has also called for identifying the inspection sites through consensus.
Sindh has accused the federal body of uneven water distribution. However, IRSA says that the province is being provided its due share.
Last month, IRSA chief Rao Irshad Ali Khan wrote a letter to Water and Power Development Authority chairman Muzammil Hussain and conveyed to him the instructions of the National Assembly Standing Committee on Water Resources for the appointment of inspectors at key locations to monitor discharges.
The letter was written after days of a verbal spat between Khan and an IRSA member from Sindh, Zahid Hussain Junejo.
The six locations in Punjab where inspectors are recommended to be appointed include Taunsa headway, Rasul headway, Marala headway, Trimmu headway, Chashma Barrage and Panjnad headway, whereas, in Sindh, inspectors will monitor water discharges at Guddu, Sukkur and Kotri barrages.
According to the sources, technical officials would work as inspectors and monitor the water flow levels after a further increase in water shares of Punjab and Sindh due to better inflows in rivers.
