ISLAMABAD: Despite devastating floods earlier this month, the Indus River System Authority (Irsa) has estimated up to 10 per cent shortage of water during the upcoming Rabi season because of decline in storage capacity and system losses.

A meeting of Irsa’s advisory committee has been convened on Tuesday to finalise water availability estimates and its distribution among provinces during the Rabi season. Irsa Chairman Nasim Bazai will preside over the meeting.

Informed sources said Irsa had estimated water shortage of 7-9pc but some provinces had forecast 10pc shortage. Irsa has estimated system losses of 10-15pc for Rabi.

They said authorities had already started drawing water from reservoirs to meet provincial irrigation demands even though some parts of the country still remain inundated with floodwater. Some other areas, however, require additional flows for final crop watering.

The overall water storage in dams was currently much better than the last year during this period. On Sept 29, the total storage in water reservoir was recorded at 13.9MAF (million acre feet) against 12.1MAF on the same date last year.

Officials said there was strong likelihood that Chashma-Jhelum Link Canal would not be given water from Indus zone given the fact that storage in Mangla was higher than Tarbela and sufficient to meet irrigation requirement in Jhelum-Chenab zone.

Likewise, the diversion from Taunsa-Punjnad Link Canal could also be cut by 50pc when compared with last year because of the same reason.

The water level at Tarbela dam was recorded at 1,548.49 feet on Monday against its maximum conservation level of 1,550 feet while storage in Mangla dam was recorded at 1,241.80 feet against its maximum capacity of 1,242 feet.

Major crops of Rabi season include wheat, gram, lentil, tobacco, rapeseed, barley and mustard.

Published in Dawn, September 30th, 2014