ISLAMABAD, Feb 10: The Indus River System Authority (Irsa) reduced water releases to provinces on Thursday by about 50 per cent owing to improvement in river flows and reduced irrigation demand as a result of continuing spell of rains.

Irsa sources told Dawn that storage at water reservoirs had remained steady at 1.95 million acre feet (maf) despite a discharge of large quantities to the provinces since Feb 4.

The sources said discharge from Tarbela Dam had been brought down to 20,000 cusecs from 45,000 cusecs while releases from Mangla had been dropped to 5,000 cusecs from 10,000 cusecs.

Punjab had also reduced its indent from Taunsa barrage to 8,000 cusecs from 15,000 cusecs a day earlier. The canal closure from Chashma Right Bank Canal (CRBC) had also been extended to Feb 20, the sources said.

The total river inflows at rim station stood at 193,323 cusecs on Thursday against an outflow of 146,015 cusecs.

The sources said the inflows at Chashma barrage was 93,000 cusecs. The inflow in River Indus at Tarbela stood at 34,500 cusecs on Thursday and 15,000 cusecs in River Kabul.

Similarly, the river flows in River Chenab increased to 75,900 cusecs on Thursday while flows in River Jhelum stood at 67,808 cusecs.

The continuing rains have not only increased flows in the rivers but resulted in reduced consumption and demand by the provinces and hence the storage has started building up.

Water level in Tarbela dam stood at 1,418 feet on Thursday against its dead level of 1,369 feet. Similarly, water level in Mangla dam stood at 1110.40 feet against its dead level of 1,040 feet.

The Irsa sources said the heavy snowfall in the hilly areas of the country were expected to contribute to better flows in the river in the coming Kharif season, suggesting their might not be any water shortage in that season.

Last week, the Irsa had increased by 16 per cent the water share to Punjab and Sindh for the current Rabi season owing to reduction in overall shortage from 47 to 38 per cent. The Irsa had decided to conserve 0.5maf for coming Kharif season.

The Irsa had originally estimated 20.152maf of water availability at the start of Rabi season and put the shortage at 47 per cent. The shortage is estimated to come down further to 34 per cent, the sources said.