ISLAMABAD, Jan 7: The Indus River System Authority (Irsa) on Friday provisionally reduced the water shortage estimates from the original 47 per cent to 40pc for the Rabi season owing to recent rains in the country.

Irsa chairman Aman Gul Khattak told reporters that a meeting of the authority would be convened shortly to formally revise the shortage estimates for the remaining period of Rabi.

He said that owing to the recent rains the water situation had improved and more than 1.5 million acre feet (MAF) of water had been stored in the reservoirs. In reply to a question, the Irsa chairman put the total water inflows and outflows at around 56,000 cusec and 24,000 cusec, respectively. He said 32,000 cusec water had been stored.

He said Irsa had no indent for the Tarbela water releases from any province but added that owing to the electricity shortage the Water and Power Development Authority had been allowed to draw up to 5,700 cusec water from Tarbela for power generation.

He said that Wapda had demanded 8,000 cusec of water for hydel power generation but it was authorized to utilize only 5,700 cusec for the purpose. Mr Khattak said that water flows from the Tarbela dam and the Kabul river could not be saved because the Chashma Barrage was already full to capacity and added that the additional water was being diverted to the C-J Link canal to delay its arrival at the Sukkur Barrage where repair work was in progress. He said the work would not be hampered by these uncontrollable flows.

Irsa's member from Punjab, Shafqat Masood, said that the provinces had significantly improved water management during the current season. As a result, he pointed out, the water utilization in the first three months of the season had remained 40 per cent lower than what it was in the corresponding period last season.

Talking about discrepancies in the data collection under the manual and the telemetry system, the Irsa chairman said the telemetry system installed at a cost of Rs320 million was working efficiently and effectively on all locations.