LAHORE, July 26: Some 5.917MAF of water had flowed to the Arabian Sea downstream Kotri during the last 37 days, Wapda announced here on Saturday.

Wapda said that the amount of water was far more than the live capacity of Mangla Dam (4.564MAF) and two-thirds that of Tarbela (7.164MAF).

The Wapda press release said a sharp increase in water discharge downstream Kotri was being witnessed with each passing day. Around 106MAF of water was being diverted annually for irrigation and 39MAF allowed to escape below Kotri.

“In order to save and utilize the available water, construction of additional storage facilities is essential for sustainable irrigation. With the cultivable land base of 77 million acres of which only 36 million acres are fed by canals, Pakistan still has the potential to bring around 22.5 million acres of land under the plough through sustainable irrigation.”

With increasing population, Pakistan could face water shortage in not-so-distant future. The per capita surface water availability was 5,650 cubic meters in 1951, which reduced to 1,400 cubic meters in the year 2000, the press release said. The minimum per capita water requirement to avoid shortage is 1,000 cubic meters. Pakistan would have reached the stage of acute water shortage in 2012.