ISLAMABAD, Sept 14: The water situation has started deteriorating because of a sudden fall in river flows and storage level in dams which can affect crops in the coming Rabi season.The situation may become more precarious in the absence of four of five members of the Indus River System Authority (Irsa) as decision making powers of the authority stand substantially diluted. Irsa has only one member from Balochistan and the remaining three provinces and the centre are represented by provincial irrigation secretaries. Most of the time they fail to reach consensus in decision making.

Sources told Dawn that Irsa realised about a week ago that river flows had started falling and it would be difficult to check a sudden reduction in the water level in dams. It wrote to Sindh and Punjab asking them to reduce their indents to save sliding water levels in Tarbela dam.

They said the two provinces had agreed to bring down their water demands, but practically their voluntary cuts were far beyond the required levels. Subsequently, the acting chairman of Irsa, who happens to be Sindh irrigation secretary, wrote in his capacity as Irsa chairman to Punjab asking the province to reduce its withdrawals from Tarbela and instead meet its requirements from the Jhelum-Chenab system in order to maintain water level in the Tarbela system.

The sources said the Irsa chairman reminded the Punjab authorities that about 135,000 cusec water was being withdrawn from Tarbela this year, compared with 100,000 cusec of the same period last year, resulting in an unusual fall in the storage level.

The sources said the main reason behind a drastic fall in water levels was a free-for-all attitude of the provinces because there were no formal members to exercise the authority. Posts of all four members representing the federal government, Sindh, Punjab and NWFP fell vacant before Aug 16 and no summary has been prepared or forwarded by the ministry of water and power to fill the posts.

They said the water level in Tarbela dam had dropped by about seven feet in five days and stood at 1,543.86 feet against its maximum storage level of 1,550 ft. This is mainly for the reason that total inflow in Tarbela hovers around 85,000 cusec against over 135,000 cusec. This means that Tarbela dam is going into deficit to the extent of 50,000 cusec every day.

The water level in Mangla dam was recorded at 1,200.45 feet on Friday as against its maximum level of 1,210 feet. It was also losing storage because it receives about 16,000 cusec and releases over 30,000 cusec daily.

Irsa sources said that total inflow at the rim station was recorded at 149,628 cusec while outflow was over 213,401 cusec which means that more than 63,000 cusec water goes out of the dams.