May 17, 2007	Thursday	Rabi-us-Sani 29, 1428

ISLAMABAD, May 16: The Indus River System Authority (Irsa) has increased water discharge from Tarbela Dam to 90,000 cusec against an irrigation requirement of just 52,000 cusec to partially offset domestic power shortage.

However, the Balochistan government filed a complaint against Sindh and said that its water supply shortage now exceeded 26 per cent despite excess release from dams. This prompted the Irsa to call an emergency meeting of irrigation authorities from Sindh and Balochistan on May 18 in Sukkur to resolve the issue.

The meeting, to be presided over by Chairman Irsa Mohammad Khan Memon, would examine reasons behind the short supplies to Balochistan given the fact that more than 40,000 cusec of water was going downstream Kotri. So far, three million acre-foot (MAF) of water had escaped downstream Kotri since the start of the current season early last month.

An Irsa delegation, led by its chairman, will also conduct a field visit to determine if there were operational problems causing short supplies to Balochistan, or if timely indents were not being conveyed to the Sindh or Sindh was delaying discharges, or water theft or delayed opening of the Guddu Barrage was responsible for the loss.

Balochistan’s complaint against Sindh for short water supplies is not new and surfaces every year, particularly at the times of shortages. The Irsa was, however, more worried over the issue because the issue had arisen despite sufficient supplies.

The sources said that despite large releases of water for power generation, the two reservoirs currently stored around 5.8 MAF on Wednesday against 1.9 MAF on the same day a year ago. They said that Irsa was now comfortable with the water situation and hoped that there would be no water shortage this year

Irsa also increased releases from the Mangla Dam to 40,000 cusec against inflows of about 48,000 cusec. This means about 8,000 cusec water is being stored every day.

A sudden dip in inflows to 75,000 cusec in Tarbela dam a few days ago had worried provincial irrigation officials but again risen to 130,000 cusec and was expected to touch 150,000 cusec as temperatures now seemed very promising at 32 degree Celsius in Skardu. On the whole, Punjab is currently getting its indent of 121,000 cusec, followed by Sindh at 85,000 cusec, Balochistan at 2,950 cusec and the NWFP at around 2000 cusec.

The sources said Minister for Water and Power Liaquat Ali Jatoi also directed Wapda members and heads of generation companies at a meeting here on Wednesday to revive a few out-of-order units of Jamshoro and Guddu thermal power stations within 15 days to increase electricity supply by about 300MW. The minister did not accept a justification put forth by a head of a generation company that some of the units were not operational because of gas shortfalls, saying such an excuse could only be entertained in winter.