Jatoi assures no shortage of water for Rabi season
By Tariq Chaudhry

ISLAMABAD—Federal Minister for Water and Power, Liaquat Ali Jatoi on Saturday said the government is fully committed to provide due share of water to provinces for Rabi sowing season 2005 and assured the provinces of no shortage.
It was mutually agreed with consensus that there would be no shortage of water for Rabi sowing season as adequate storage water was available as compared to last year and IRSA would be in a position to supply due share of water to all provinces.
He made these observations in an Inter-Provincial meeting held here with Federal Minister for Water and Power, Liaquat Ali Jatoi in chair. Provincial Irrigation Ministers of Punjab and Sindh and representatives of all provinces participated in the meeting.
The provinces have been directed to submit their indents to the IRSA for Rabi sowing period. The IRSA was directed to review the indents of the provinces and meet full Rabi sowing requirements. The water situation will be reviewed by IRSA in first week of December and the plan of distribution for the remaining crop period. All provinces expressed their concern over the problems of telemetry system and requested for accurate and early restoration of the system. The Minister informed that inquries were conducted by Ministry and the Prime Minister's Inspection Commission on the matter and keeping in the view the findings of the report, Wapda and Siemens have been asked to make the system fully operational by November 1, 2005.
The meeting also discussed the repair plan of Taunsa Barrage in detail and unanimously agreed that the repairs should be carried out urgently in the national interest. It was agreed by Punjab and all the other provinces that the indenting point for Sindh and Balochistan will be Guddu Barrage instead of Chashma Barrage during the closure period of Taunsa Barage. Any additional losses of water due to re-routing of water will be borne by Punjab.
The Minister advised all the organization to fully comply with regulations order issued by IRSA. He also advised the provinces and IRSA to plan and communicate well in advance preferably 48 hours in advance so that Wapda can revert to revert thermal power plans to adjust and meet the demand.
The meeting ended with vote of thanks and participated by Advisor to Ministry of Water and Power, Riaza Ahmed Khan, Secretary Water and Power, Ashfaq Mehmood, Provincial Ministers for Irrigation from Sindh, Punjab and Irrigation secretaries of Balochistan and NWFP, Chairman IRSA and Members of IRSA, Member (Water) Wapda, and senior officials of Ministry, IRSA and the provinces.