07 August 2004	Saturday	20 Jamadi-us-Saani 1425

ISLAMABAD, Aug 6: The water situation in the Indus river system has further deteriorated, forcing the Indus River System Authority on Friday to cut releases by more than 40,000 cusec a day, it is learnt.

Irsa sources confirmed that water releases to the provinces had been reduced in view of declining river flows and a meeting of the Irsa advisory committee had been convened on Aug 17 to consider a revision of the water management plan for the remaining Kharif season.

Irsa reduced the release from Tarbela to 125,000 cusec from 155,000 cusec on Wednesday. Similarly, release from Chashma was reduced from 170,000 cusec on Wednesday to 150,000 cusec on Friday.

Water releases from Taunsa downstream fell to 134,670 cusec on Friday from 140,000 cusec a day earlier. The drop in discharges has started affecting crops in Sindh, these sources said.

However, the discharge of water downstream Guddu on Friday increased to 118,500 cusec from 116,100 cusec on Thursday. The flow at Chashma-Jhelum link canal was increased from 11,000 cusec on Thursday to 13,155 cusec on Friday.

Irsa sources said this would be for the first time since the 1991 accord that the water management plan would be revised twice during Kharif. Last week Irsa had reviewed the water situation and decided to convene the advisory committee meeting to revise the water management plan. The water level at Tarbela was recorded at 1430.94 feet on Friday against 1429.63 feet on Thursday.