ISLAMABAD, May 17: Federal Minister for Water and Power Liaquat Ali Jatoi said on Wednesday that the water situation had satisfactorily improved in the four provinces following a spell of rain and melting of snow on mountains and glaciers.
The minister said this was in stark contrast with the water availability position three to four weeks ago when a severe crisis was feared. He was speaking in response to a question in the Senate.
The house witnessed a lengthy discussion on whether the question hour could be extended especially since the chairman had ruled that it was over.
After both the sides exhausted their arguments and counter-arguments, house leader Wasim Sajjad obtained permission from senior opposition lawmakers to ask the chair to allow Mr Jatoi to respond to the supplementary questions of senators.
For the second extension of question-hour, the chairman sought a majority vote of the house.
Raza Muhammad Raza of Pukhtunwa Milli Awami Party (PMAP) challenged the figures read out by the minister pertaining to Balochistan and claimed that his province was being deprived of its due share.
Since Mr Raza was boiling with rage, Mr Soomro advised him to cool down and listen to the minister’s statement first.
Sharing figures from a statement provided by Irsa, the minister said the total water available in reservoirs had reached 362,000 cusecs, of which 294,000 cusecs was being released according to the four provinces’ indent.
Out of the water available, he said 192,000 cusecs had been kept as reserve, while 165,000 cusecs and 120,000 cusecs had been released for Punjab and Sindh, respectively.
He also pointed that Balochistan and the NWFP were getting water according to their indent.
On People’s Party Parliamentarians’ lawmaker Bibi Yasim Shah’s query as to how much water was available at Kotri and Sukkur barrages, the minister said that 12,000 cusecs of water had to be released from both the barrages.
Nevertheless, Ms Shah said, Sindh was suffering the worst shortage of water and a number of problems, including spread of epidemics such as hepatitis, had been reported from all over.
The minister said that 3,800 cusecs of water was available at Kotri as of May 17 which will be increased in the next two to three days as the snow melts and flows downstream.
“We have upstream Chashma 15,200 cusecs, downstream 150,000 cusecs, Guddu 58,000 cusecs, Sukkur 460 cusecs and Taunsa 102,000 cusecs of water”.
He assured the house that water would be made available in the next couple of days.
