HYDERABAD: Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) chairman Zafar Mehmood said that Wapda is trying its best to maintain a telemetry system with a view to improving water measurement in order to remove reservations of the Indus River System Authority (Irsa) over correct water data.

Speaking to members of theSindh Chamber of Agriculture (SCA) and reporters in a meeting held in the SCA office on Thursday, he said the World Bank (WB) had released funds for the telemetry system`s introduction to get electronic data calculation and observation regarding flows and level of river and dams.

He said the system had been handed over to Irsa and now it was again with Wapda as per the government`s decision following a report of the prime minister`sinspection team. Wapda, he said, now was maintaining it, but it was not functional.

`Wapda is spending money on it from its own resources in addition to the government`s normal funding for the [telemetry] system.

Wapda is still working on it and trying to improve water measurement system so that Irsa can have no objection to receiving less water after calculation,` he said, adding that Wapda was still gauging water flows through an old mechanism.He said Irsa had some reservations over water flows in the system as Wapda calculated water on Bisham -the meeting station over the Indus River in between Gilgit and Islamabad before moving it from Bisham to Tarbella.

He said he had sent a team of Wapda to checl< it and held a meeting with the team after their visit to Irsa. The chief stressed that it was necessary to improve measurement system as it could be incorrectly calculated as long as the telemetrysystem was not functional.

He explained that when Wapda had been established, it was responsible for distribution of water at that time. But after 2007, it was not responsible for thermal power making and distribution, transmission and billing system. He elaborated when Irsa had been established, Wapda was not responsible for water distribution.

A single drop of water could not be moved without Irsa permission or intent, he added.