ISLAMABAD: Provinces will get sufficient water during the upcoming Kharif season, the Indus River System Authority (Irsa) said on Thursday, raising the hopes for a bumper yield of the country’s major cash crops, including cotton, rice and sugarcane.

“There will be zero shortage of water in the coming Kharif season,” Irsa’s Director Operations Khalid Rana told reporters after a meeting of the authority’s technical committee.

It is also expected that adequate availability of water will not only increase area of cultivation, but it will also help improve hydroelectric power generation. Moreover, a traditional confrontation between Sindh and Punjab over water distribution is also less likely this time around.

The meeting, attended by representatives of all provinces and Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda), was informed that due to sufficient reserves of water in major dams, more than 100 million acre-feet (MAF) water will be available for provinces.

It was decided that water distribution and irrigation plan for all provinces will be finalised in the advisory committee of Irsa to be held on April 1.

The plan will be finalised according to the recommendations of provinces and on the basis of overall water losses, water probabilities based on historic flows and rainfalls.

Published in Dawn, March 27th, 2015

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