ISLAMABAD, Sept 25: The Indus River System Authority (Irsa) has allowed Sindh to manage additional 6,000 cusecs of water for filling the Chotiari reservoir.
Sources told Dawn that Sindh would have additional water by constructing two new fall structures and by rehabilitating the Ranto Canal in the province.
“The Indus River System Authority under Chapter II, Section 8(1-g) of Irsa Act has examined the issue and is of the view that the project mainly comprises construction of two new fall structures and rehabilitation of Ranto Canal and no additional water is being demanded,” writes the chairman of the authority to the senior chief, water, of the planning and development division.
He said need for certification regarding availability of extra water to be accorded by Irsa did not arise.
Sources said the federal government would provide Rs1 billion to Sindh for the construction of fall structures on Nara Canal, re-sectioning of Ranto Canal and strengthening of Jamrao Canal from 17 to 49 miles in Nawabshah, Sanghar, Mirpurkhas, Badin and Thatta.
The main objective is to solve the problem of scouring and meandering of Nara Canal, removal of the silt deposited in the Ranto Canal and rehabilitation of Jamrao Canal.
The scope of the work also includes the construction of double ‘gyrons’ along with Nara Canal, providing stone pitching and apron along Mangli, construction of village road bridge at Tajjal, re-sectioning of Ranto Canal and embankment work and construction of gyrons of Jamrao canal.
Earlier, the steering committee of the ministry of water and power had examined the issue of design of Nara Canal fall structures and other technical aspects of the project. It agreed on the detailed design of the canal wherein six fall structures had been proposed. Out of these, two fall structured had been constructed and their performance was satisfactory.
The Nara Canal takes off from Sukkar Barrage and was remodelled from 13,500 cusecs to 20,000 cusecs under Left Bank Outfall Drainage, stage 1, project. The design of the remodelling of Nara Canal included construction of six fall structures to reduce the bed slope and bed material load generation, raising and strengthening of embankments and dredging in lower ratio. Accordingly, the construction of two fall structures, raising and strengthening of embankments and dredging was carried out but four fall structures were not constructed due to financial constraints being faced by the Sindh government.