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National Assembly members of the standing committee on water resources, Khalid Magsi and Riazul Haq on their recent visit to Taunsa and Guddu in Pakistan's Sindh to address the water dispute between the two provinces have been blamed for their wrong evaluation of water flow as the commitee claimed the river point selected in Sindh as 'irregular'.
However, a senior official of the Punjab Irrigation Department told Dawn on Saturday, that no irregularity was observed at Taunsa as the water discharge reported by the province was found to be true during monitoring by the NA body, and no objection was raised by Sindh over the water flow. The criteria adopted for measuring water flow in River Indus by a sub-committee of the National Assembly's standing committee has been questioned by Punjab as the province objected to the selection of an irregular section at Guddu which was 300-foot downstream, as the measured discharge was far less than that reported by Sindh at the barrage on May 15, the official added. He also said that the monitoring team found the flow (at irregular riverbed point) to be 34,000 cusecs against the reported discharge of 44,000 cusecs, a difference of 10,000 cusecs or minus on May 15 whereas Sindh irrigation authorities reported the water flows downstream at Sukkur at 38,000 cusecs the next day. "We demanded a joint observation at the uniform riverbed section to address the anomaly, but instead the Punjab representative was dismounted from the boat and not allowed to join the monitoring at Badani point with no action being taken," the Punjab Irrigation Department official claimed. The standing committee also did not consider the request for postponing its meeting held on May 25 because neither the Punjab irrigation secretary nor the minister was available to present the province's point of view, he stated in fury. The water situation in Sindh has worsened with little water flowing into its Indus-linked canals province from the upstream region of Punjab, sparking a rift between the irrigation and water ministers of the two provinces. In order to put a block on the ongoing water shortage in Pakistan and the incessant rise in water theft, a high profile committee has been appointed during the proceedings of the National Assembly in Islamabad to deal with the alarming crisis. Meanwhile, A five-member delegation, headed by Syed Mehar Ali Shah, is scheduled to visit New Delhi to attend the 118th meeting of the Indus Commission pertaining to sharing of waters between India and Pakistan under the Indus Waters Treaty signed in 1960. The delegation will leave through Wagah on Sunday (today) and return on June 1 through the same route after a two-day meeting on the supply of advance flood information, and finalise and sign the annual report of the commission, reported Dawn. (ANI)
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