24 September 2004	Friday	08 Shaban 1425

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ISLAMABAD, Sept 23: The Indus River System Authority (Irsa) has estimated about 37 per cent shortage of irrigation water in the early part of the coming Rabi season.

Irsa sources told Dawn on Thursday it had estimated that about five million acres feet (MAF) of water would be available in dams for irrigation at the start of the Rabi season that begins early next month. Last year, there was a storage of about 11 MAF in dams at the start of the season.

The sources said Irsa had convened a meeting of its advisory committee on Sept 25 to approve a water distribution plan for Rabi. The provinces would be provided water with a 37 per cent cut in their share in the early part of Rabi and then they would have to depend on run-of-the-river water in case there are no rains.

These sources said the Irsa was earlier estimating 43 per cent water shortage on the basis of four MAF water availability at the start of Rabi but the river flows have improved in the last week.

The water level at Tarbela dam was recorded at 1474.02 feet on Thursday against its optimum storage level of 1550 feet or 76 feet below the optimum level. Inflow and outflow at this reservoir stood at 78,700 cusecs and 95,000 cusecs respectively.

Similarly, water level at Mangla level stood at 1158.45 feet against its optimum capacity of 1206 feet, about 47.55 feet less than the maximum level. Inflow of Jhelum at Mangla was recorded at 13020 cusecs on Thursday against an outflow of 30,000 cusecs.

WATER CONSERVATION: The government has decided to overcome the water shortage through efficient conservation means to be adopted by the provinces, Our Correspondent Ihtashamul Haq adds.

Officials said here on Thursday that the government would soon begin work on 'Water Management of Spate Irrigation Systems in Rod Kohi Areas' project under which 6.9 million hectares of potential areas would be irrigated.

They said that the government would initially provide around Rs200 million to develop the irrigation system to achieve equitable water distribution, profitability of the Spate irrigation farming systems and strengthening of provincial and district governments and user institutions.

Other objectives included maintenance of improved water management structures for storage, diversion, conveyance and control of water in selected sub-catchment areas for improved application of water and increased watering intensity under droughts or floods.

Pakistan, at present, sources said, was classified as a 'water stress' country and by 2025, it would be downgraded to 'water scarce'. The country, they said, was going to face a major challenges in the water sector in future, adding that the problem would be aggravated by population increase.

The government planned to overcome drought and revive agriculture through sustainable water resources development, including the Spate Irrigation Systems of Rod-Kohi areas (locally known as Rod-Kohi in Punjab and the NWFP, Sailaba in Balochistan and Gabarband in Sindh).

Furthermore, sectoral issues identified to the Spate irrigation farming include: poor and isolated implementation of the flood sector schemes, poor linkages among water, agriculture and rural development policies and strategies and irrelevant and isolated applied research.

Pakistan faced the worst drought of its history during the period of 1998-2003 when total rainfall in Balochistan and Sindh were 50 per cent to 60 per cent below the normal rainfall, whereas flows in the Indus River System were 50 per cent to 70 per cent less than the historical average.

Sources said that a recent government-sponsored study, conducted by the National Engineering Services of Pakistan (Nespak) and entitled 'Master feasibility studies for flood management of hill torrents of Pakistan', indicated that there were around 6.9 million hectares of potential areas, which could be developed for Spate irrigation.

It further indicated that there were 24 billion cubic metre of potential water available in the hill-torrent areas, roughly amounting to 3,500 cubic metres of water available per hectare, which was insufficient considering the water allowance of the Indus Basin irrigated agriculture.