IRSA team verifies accuracy of Punjab water flows

LAHORE: Following a raid by Sindh officials on the Panjnad Barrage to check outflows, a team of the Indus River System Authority also paid a surprise visit to the water infrastructure in the province and verified accuracy of discharges.

On May 29 and 30, the visiting team of IRSA physically inspected Chashma and Jinnah Barrages located on the Indus River to ascertain authenticity of discharges as per the reported data.

On Saturday, a team comprising member IRSA Khyber Pakhtunkhawa, member IRSA Balochistan and Director Operations IRSA visited the Chashma Jhelum Link Canal and verified the accuracy of the data reported by Punjab.

The inspection team verified the CJ Link discharge at 500 cusecs at RD 34. On the same day, the team, including member IRSA KP and member IRSA

Balochistan, along with Director Operations IRSA, visited the Greater Thal Canal and verified the accuracy of the data reported by Punjab. The Greater Thal Canal found to be running with 991 cusecs against the 1,000 cusecs reported gauge.

An official of the Punjab Irrigation Department said the provincial government was always committed to maintaining transparency and accuracy as far as the distribution of water is concerned. On Sunday, member IRSA KP and member IRSA Balochistan, along with the Director Operations, IRSA, visited the Jinnah Barrage and Thal Canal and found the data reported by Punjab to be accurate.

The Thal Canal was found to be flowing with 4,500 cusecs of water while 84,400 cusecs were being released downstream as per indent communicated through the IRSA.

Earlier, in an early morning raid at the Panjnad

Barrage in Bahawalpur District, southern Punjab, officials from the Sindh Irrigation Department on Saturday found correct measuring of water flows downstream as per reported gauges.

According to an official of the Punjab Irrigation Department, a team from the Sindh Irrigation Department, headed by Nazeer Ahmad, XEN Design Guddu Barrage, made a surprise visit on May 29, 2021 to the Panjnad Barrage to ascertain the quantum of flows as per reported discharges.

He added that according to the joint recording of water flow measurement by both the visiting team

and local staff, Sindh officials found discharge flows to be in complete accordance with the data reported by the Punjab Irrigation Department to Indus River Susyem Authority (IRSA).

During the surprise visit, according to jointly signed document by both teams, outflows from the Punjnad Barrage were recorded at 4,985 cusecs against 5,000 cusecs reported discharges. These figures were true while factoring in the margin of error.

Similar is the case of diversion of flows into the Panjnad canal, Abbassia canal and Abbassia link canal that originate from the barrage and irrigate large swathes of lands in southern Punjab. It was observed during the joint measurement exercise that Punjnad canals were flowing with less water to the tune to 30 to 40 percent, according to the jointly signed document.