17 July 2004	Saturday	28 Jamadi-ul-Awwal 1425

LAHORE, July 16: The current rivers' flow, though meeting requirements of the country at present, cannot meet the storage needs and there may be unbearable water pressure during the next Rabi season.

According to the Punjab Irrigation Department, almost the whole of water supply from the Indus arm was being consumed for meeting water requirements of cotton and rice crops.

On Friday, 180,000 cusecs out of the total supply of 185,800 cusecs of Indus were released for meeting crop requirements. Some 36,400 cusecs of the River Kabul were also consumed and so was the supply of Chenab.

The only compensation came from Mangla Dam where the Indus River System Authority was able to store 16,100 cusecs out of the total flow of 28,100 cusecs. But both dams are still substantially below the level expected by Irsa. Tarbela dam, which stood at 1,432.08 feet on Friday, was some 45 feet below the expected level.

Mangla dam was also 35 feet below the expected level of 1,187 feet. Irrigation authorities fear that the current flow of river may not continue till Sept 30 when country's requirements start receding, leaving some room for storage for the Rabi crop.