ISLAMABAD: Brushing aside autonomy of the Indus River System Authority (IRSA), federal ministry of water resources has silently awarded the project; ‘Automation of Water Discharge Monitoring’ to Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA), which had failed to complete the same project in 2003 causing loss of Rs 345 million to the national exchequer.
The provinces, particularly Punjab and Sindh have differences on their share of water since a long time. The main reason of differences among provinces on distribution of water resources is unavailability of real time data of water resources.
An official communication 1(1) 2019-AC issued by federal ministry of water resources reveals that project ‘Automation of water Discharge Monitoring’ also called telemetry system costing around Rs.1 billion has been awarded to WAPDA.
This has been done despite known fact that WAPDA had failed to execute the same project in year 2003.
According to the official communiqué, the federal ministry also directed to setup a steering committee headed by Chairman IRSA and comprising IRSA members representing provinces and a senior officer of grade 20 each from Ministry of Water Resources, Ministry of Planning and Development and Ministry of Finance to monitor and steer the project implementation and completion of work in given time frame.
A senior official of federal ministry of water resources on condition of anonymity informed The News Today that the same project was awarded to WAPDA in year 2000, after former president of Pakistan Gen ® Pervaiz Musharaf who took over the country.
WAPDA failed to execute the project on ground and caused loss of millions of rupees to the kitty.
The minutes of meeting headed by than federal minister of water and power, Liaqat Jatoi are on record, who directed to initiate an inquiry against WAPDA for leaving the project incomplete. He had also recommended blacklisting National Engineering Services Pakistan (NESPAK), an engineering consultancy firm which was in partnership with WAPDA.
