LAHORE, Feb 13: The Punjab irrigation authorities on Wednesday decided to close all major perennial canals in the province after March 10 because of the depletion of water resources.

The decision to this affect was taken during a meeting held to formulate a strategy to ration the scant canal water for the wheat crop from Feb 15 to March 31. It was attended by senior officials of the provincial irrigation and agriculture departments.

“In the Punjab the rabi reason lasts from October to March 31 and there will be no arrangement to ensure last watering of the wheat crop especially in the sweet water area after March 10,” the irrigation authorities said.

According to them, the situation was even worse than the last year when the province could not ensure last watering to the wheat crop in many areas because of the pre-mature depletion of the reservoirs. “Like the previous year, we are praying for rain as we do not have any resources to cope with the situation,” they said.

They said after March 10 the supplies would be linked directly to the river flow and again preference would be given to the saline ground water areas to meet the crop and especially the drinking water needs. The areas included Toba Tek Singh, Khushab, Bahawalpur, Bahawalnagar, Rahim Yar Khan, Rajanpur and Dera Ghazi Khan.

The authorities said the supplies would be stopped completely in the sweet water zone which would fulfil its requirements for the wheat crop through sub-soil or rain, if any.

Most of the sweet water zones fell within the Mangla command and the canals that would remain closed after March 10 were Upper Jhelum, Upper Chenab and Lower Bari Doab. The Lower Jhelum and the Upper Pakpattan would be closed after March 20.

The canals in the saline ground water areas were fed by the Tarbela Dam. Those which would be closed after March 10 were Thal, Haveli, Sidhnai, Panjnad/Abbasia, Muzaffargarh/Dera Ghazi Khan and Lower Bahawal.

The authorities clarified that these canals would however continue to receive minimum supplies through the river flow to meet the drinking and crop requirements.

At the start of the rabi season IRSA (Indus River System Authority) had forecast 18.73MAF water for the entire country against the actual requirement of 35MAF, showing an overall shortfall of 51 per cent. The availability later increased to 20MAF due to rains.

In the meantime, the river flow remained low because of negligible rain in the country between October, 2001, to January, 2002. IRSA reviewed the water situation on Feb 6 and found that the provinces had already used 14.6MAF by Jan 31.

The Punjab was given a share of 10MAF out of the all available water resources for the rabi season. Out of this, it utilized 8MAF by Jan 31. Sindh was allocated 7.3MAF out of which it utilized 5.6MAF by the same date.

On Feb 1, only 5MAF was available out of which the Punjab was to get 1.73MAF. Right now, the Punjab had only 133MAF —- around 88MAF Mangla and .45 Tarbela —- at its disposal. And most of the water would be used by the end of this month.

Last year the province was allocated 11.3MAF for the rabi season and it had utilized 9.38MAF by Feb 10, having 1.92MAF for the remaining period of the season.

“There will be a nose dive in March and the situation would be even worse than in the last year,” the authorities said.

The overall shortage during the entire rabi was estimated at 60 per cent. This was 50 per cent in February and was expected to increase to 70 per cent in March.

On Wednesday, the water level in Tarbela Dam was 1,388.10ft against 1,396ft last year. The total water storage availability was .29MAF against last year’s .48MAF. The dead level in the dam was 1,369ft and its full storage capacity 7.2MAF.

The outflow of the dam was 21,000 cusecs and the inflow 12,001 cusecs against last year’s 28,000 cusecs and 12,400 cusecs, respectively.

The level in the Mangla Dam was 1,106.90ft against last year’s 1109.70ft and the total storage availability was .67MAF against last year’s .73MAF. It’s dead level was 1,040ft.

The outflow of the dam was 11,000 cusecs and the inflow 8,300 cusecs against previous year’s 3,000 and 5,100, respectively.

The flow of the river Kabul was 4,850 cusecs and of the Chenab 5,900 cusecs against last year’s 2,250 cusecs and 4,700 cusecs, respectively.