ISLAMABAD: The senators from the three smaller provinces rejected on Thursday the government`s claim regarding just distribution of water among the federating units and alleged that they were not getting their due share.

During the question hour, PPP`s members from Sindh also rejected the Minister of State for Water and Power Abid Sher Ali`s claim that approximately 22 million acre feet (MAF) of water flew into the sea unutilised every year.

Senator Taj Haider said that if the minister`s claim was correct then how 2.4 million acres of land in Badin and Thatta had been lost to sea intrusion.

The minister was replying to a question by PML-N`s Nuzhat Sadiq who had asked if international organisations, including the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, had indicated in their reports that the Indus system was fast becoming a `closed basin` He said in a written reply that the international organisations had indicated that Pakistan was a waterstressed country. However, he said the point of view of the Indus River System Authority (Irsa) was that it was not a closed basin and the totalquantum of the water could not be tapped as yet.

He said that on an average about 30MAF of water flowed below Kotri Barrage towards the sea.

After deduction of the 8.6MAF required for environmental flows to check sea intrusion in accordance with recommendations of an international panel of experts, about 22MAF could easily be tapped for irrigation and other forms of consumption, he said.

In reply to a question by Usman Kakar of the Pashtunkhwa Milli Awami Party about the quantum of water being received by each provinceandtheFederallyAdministered Tribal Areas (Fata) from rivers and other sources, the minister said the provinces were getting their share in accordance with the agreed formula.

He said there was no mention of Fata`s share in the Water Apportionment Accord of 1991.

Senator Kakar insisted that Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa were getting less water than their agreed share.

PPP`s Sassui Palijo and the Awami National Party`s Ilyas Bilour also alleged that wrong statistics were being presented before the house.

In response, the minister said that PPP had done nothing toimprove the water distribution system during its five-year rule.

`When the PPP was in power, it did not find any issue. And whenever the PML-N comes to power, they start raising hue and cry about unjust water distribution,` he said.

He asked why the Sindh government had not raised the issue of the sea`s intrusion at the Council of Common Interests (CCI) or Irsa.

In reply to a question asked by retired Col Tahir Mashhadi of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, he said a loss of Rs43 billion had been suffered because ofelectricity theft during 2014-15 as compared to Rs57.77bn the previous year.

The minister said hundreds of employees of the Water and Power Development Authority had been sacked for their involvement in cases of electricity theft.

He said the government had recovered Rs800 million with the help of the Rangers in Sukkur and adjoining areas.

Interestingly, Mr Ali also informed the house that all the 10 power distribution companies had been functioning without a chief executive officer.

The Senate also began a lacklustre debate on the June 4 address of President Mamnoon Hussain to a joint sitting of parliament.