Thanks to funding from the Australian government, now Pakistan has developed an automatic tool for equal water distribution among the provinces. The purpose behind developing this software was to end the manual system of water distribution.
Besides, the government has handed over this tool to the provinces and federal government to distribute water. This software will help to predict flows in the rivers; system losses and gains and provide water to the crops. This is an invention that will help to distribute the water into different regions of Pakistan.
Although the Indus River System Authority (Irsa) was using this tool along with the manual system for the last three years. Currently, the manual system of water distribution, system operations, and flow predictions in the river has come to an end.
Indus River System Authority held a meeting at its headquarters in Islamabad on September 12. The chairman of IrsaZahid Hussain Junejo discussed the progress and uptake of the Water Accord Apportionment (WAA) tool and also the further developments proposed by the team. All Isramembers, technical personnel, Wapda adviser, and representatives of PIDs attended the meeting. While Dr. Mobinud Din Ahmad the project leader represented CSIRO.
On the other hand, ACIAR’s Research Programme Manager for Water Dr. Neil Lazarow, and Pakistan Country Manager Dr. MunawarKazmi also attended the meeting. A ceremony was held at MoWR after a technical discussion to officially hand over the WAA tool report to the ministry’s joint secretary Muhammad Mehr Ali Shah, Irsa, Wapda, and representatives of PIDs.
Therefore, the software tool was developed because of the collaboration between the water resources ministry (MoWR); Irsa; Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA); provincial irrigation departments (PIDs); and the Australian government provided funds through Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) and Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR).
The ACIAR representative suggested that an Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) Plan, after considering all operational factors to explore their mutual interaction and how they influence each other must be prepared.
It is the responsibility of the current generation to pass the efficient and integrated management of water resources to the next ones for the sustainability of the Indus Basin Irrigation Systems (IBIS).
Hence, all members of Irsa appreciated the joint collective exercise by the Pakistani and Australian sides. This co-development opportunity allowed both countries to learn from each other’s experience in the field and apply it productively.
The software developed by Pakistan is an automatic tool on which further work can be done including the mid-seasonal planning as discussed and requested during the event. If Pakistan does the addition of reach-wise losses and gains and water accounts auditing capability the tool will become more beneficial.
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