ISLAMABAD, June 11: The Indus River System Authority (Irsa) is likely to reduce the provincial water share on Monday owing to an overall decline of 173,000 cusec in four rivers during the last 20 days.
Reliable sources told Dawn on Sunday that the average flow in four rivers — Indus, Kabul, Jhelum and Chenab — declined from 380,000 cusec per day on May 22 to 206,981 cusec on June 10 showing a reduction of about 46 per cent.
At this stage, maximum water availability is critical for rice crop in particular and cotton in general. Both the crops are currently in the sowing stage in Sindh and Punjab.
The sources said the water flow in the Indus, Jhelum and Kabul declined together by about 7,500 cusec since Friday but were compensated by the rise in the flow of the Chenab by about 12,282 cusec. As such, the average river flow increased by 4,785 cusec.
The water flow in the River Indus was 98,800 cusec on Friday. However, it declined by 1,400 cusec to 97,400 cusec on Saturday. The River Kabul declined by 3,000 cusec to 29,100 cusec on Saturday from 32,100 cusec on Friday.
The flow in the River Jhelum declined by 3,097 cusec to 34,130 cusec from 37,227 cusec a day earlier. However, the flow in the River Chenab increased by 12,282 cusec to 46,351 on Saturday from 34,069 cusec on Friday. As such, overall river flows were registered at 206,981 cusec on Saturday compared with 202,196 cusec a day earlier.
As a result, the outflow from the Chashma barrage reduced from 175,637 cusec to 164,583 cusec within 24 hours, showing a decline of 11,054 cusec. However, despite the drop the flow in the Chashma-Jhelum canal increased by 597 cusec to 18,000 cusec from 17,403.
The flow in the Thal canal increased to 8,000 cusec from 7,500 cusec.
The reduction in outflows from the Chashma has already starting affecting the Taunsa barrage where upstream flows were recorded at 165,564 cusec on Saturday, down by 4,488 cusec from 170,052 cusec a day earlier.
The discharge downstream Taunsa barrage decreased to 142,969 from 146,722 a day ealier. The water flow upstream Guddu was reduced by 3,084 cusec to 141,074 on Saturday while its discharge downstream was cut by 5,264 cusec to 110,248.
The water flow upstream Sukkur barrage was cut by 4,708 cusec to 108,315 while its outflow was also reduced by 5,080 cusec to 51,035 cusec.
