ISLAMABAD: The government is replacing the old and outdated telemetry system with a new one to monitor all available water sources in the country in real time without human interference, reports WealthPK.
According to Engineer Ahmad Kamal, Chairman of the Federal Flood Commission, the main monitoring station will be set up at the Wapda House, while monitoring stations will also be established in the four provinces and federal capital.
Talking to WealthPK, Muhammad Kashif, Deputy Director of PCRWR, said, “The telemetry system will be crucial for flood forecasting and early warning, allowing the authorities to take proactive measures to effectively manage floods and mitigate potential damages. It also provides real-time data on water levels and flow rates.”
“The irrigation department system was outdated and required officials to visit the location to take readings and submit them to the office. This process was prone to inaccuracy and record-tampering, leading to mistrust among the provinces,” he said.
“The new telemetry system is replacing the centuries-old manual system for water flow measurement and will develop confidence among the provinces by transmitting the data automatically to the federal and provincial governments on their monitoring sites without human interference on a real-time basis”, he said.
“The PCRWR has started this project with the collaboration of International Water Management Institute (IWMI) and introduced this technology in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on all the canals with the support of USAID,” said the PCRWR deputy director.
“Different rating curves are developed for each canal in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Accordingly, real-time data is coming on the server which is then communicated to the irrigation department through WhatsApp messages,” he said.
“It is the need of the hour to shift from the manual system to a technological one. Installation of the telemetry system on different canals and barrages of the country will help reduce mistrust among the provinces in terms of water distribution by providing data on the exact level of water.”
Talking to WealthPK, Dr. Mohsin Hafeez, Country Representative of Pakistan and Regional Representative of Central Asia IWMI, said, “IWMI Pakistan is working on reforms such as water accounting and water resources assessment, allocation system, groundwater management info system & irrigation demand management to promote sustainable use of water.”
“In Pakistan, information about the availability of surface water, groundwater and rainwater is limited. Each province has its own method of monitoring and measuring water resources, resulting in a lack of consistency. The adoption of international standards can help develop a unified approach, which will yield accurate information about water availability,” he added.
