ISLAMABAD, Sept 11: The Indus River System Authority (Irsa) has estimated a water shortfall of 35-40 per cent for Rabi season and told provinces that their allocations would not match their indents. The shortfall was 23 per cent last year.The Sindh government has accepted Irsa’s request to reduce its indent for remaining 20 days of the Kharif season by 20,000 cusec.

But the Punjab government has rejected the demand and, therefore, its share would be slashed by about 10,000 cusec on Friday.

These decisions were taken on Thursday at a meeting, chaired by Irsa chairman Bashir Ahmed Dahar.

Informed sources told Dawn that Sindh’s share had been cut by 20,000 cusec to 100,000 cusec while Punjab’s share would be reduced to 40,000 cusec from 49,000.

Outflows from Tarbela dam have been reduced from 140,000 cusec to 130,000 cusec. The shortage has resulted from a fall in temperatures in the Northern Areas and a withdrawal by the provinces that exceeds their shares.

At present, Tarbela is receiving about 63,000 cusec of river flows against outflows of 130,000 cusec and water level was declining by an average two feet every day. River flows upstream Mangla stood at about 22,000 cusec while the outflow was 29,000 cusec.

The water level at Tarbela stood at 1,532 feet on Thursday while its dead level is 1,369 feet. The level at Mangla was recorded at 1,198 feet while its dead level is 1,040 feet.