ISLAMABAD, June 26: The sudden rise in temperature that melted snow in the Himalayan region has improved river flows and eliminated water shortages, creating hopes for a good Kharif crop, it is learnt.
As a result, the Indus River System Authority (IRSA) on Monday restored normal water shares to the provinces as defined in the 1991 water apportionment accord. “By the grace of the Almighty, water shortage has come down to zero today,” an Irsa official told Dawn.
Two larger provinces — Sindh and Punjab — were earlier facing a significant cut in their water shares due to the projected 19 per cent shortfall. Last weekend, the water storage in two dams had come down drastically and was estimated to last just two or three days.
“We are now saving more than 35,000 cusec of water per day in the reservoirs, after meeting provincial water shares,” he said. As a result of the improvement, Punjab’s water share has increased by 22,000 cusec to 132,000 cusec on Monday from 110,000 cusec on Friday.
Sindh’s share was also increased by about 24,000 cusec to 146,000 from 122,000 cusec two days ago. The shares of the NWFP and Balochistan have been kept unchanged at 3,000 cusec and 12,000 cusec per day respectively. The water shortages are not applied to these two provinces because of their limited utilisation capacity.
Total flows at rim station on Monday morning increased to 308,804 cusec compared to 202,000 cusec a couple of days ago, showing an impressive improvement of about 107,000 cusec.
The outflow from Tarbela dam was increased to 165,000 cusec on Monday against 145,000 cusec on Friday. Similarly, discharges from Chashma were also increased to 178,000 cusec compared with 160,000 cusec two days ago.
The water flows in almost all rivers improved, particularly Kabul, Indus and Jhelum. Flows in the Indus almost doubled to 171,000 cusec from 90,000 cusec a few days ago. Discharges at the Chashma-Jhelum canal also increased by 2,000 cusec to 15,000 cusec.
The water level in Tarbela on Monday stood at 1,399feet against its dead level of 1,369feet. Similarly, the water level in the Mangla dam was recorded at 1,160feet on Monday against its dead level of 1,040feet.
The Irsa had originally estimated overall water shortage of about 11 per cent at the start of the season in April but increased its shortfall projections to about 19 per cent about a week ago.
