LAHORE, Feb 24: The recent rain spell has removed water shortage in the country, which, otherwise, would have been around 20 per cent, threatening the third and essential watering for the wheat crop.
According to some Punjab Irrigation Department officials, the recent wet spell was beneficial in two ways; it provided crucial third watering to the standing wheat crop, and it helped fill dams as well.
If last year’s corresponding day (February 23) is taken as a benchmark, the recent rain spell has provided an additional 1.51 million acre feet (MAF) water to the country, which has all been preserved in Tarbela and Mangla dams. Tarbela lake, which stood at 1,434 feet on Friday with a live storage of 1.66maf, was at a level of 1,411 feet on the same day last year, with a live storage of 0.84maf.
Similarly, Mangla lake, which stood at a level of 1,122 feet on Friday (yesterday) with a live storage of 1.16maf, was at 1,089 feet last year with storage of 0.47maf. Thus, both lakes now have an additional 1.51maf water even after the third irrigation of the wheat crop, and running all its canals at full capacity.
“Currently, all canals in the province are running at their full capacity,” says Mehmoodul Hassan Siddiqui, a consultant with the Punjab Irrigation Department. It was also due to the fact that the water requirement of all these canals had come down drastically, he added. The wet spell supplemented the water needs of crops substantially, thus bringing down their water requirement.
Hopefully, the country would be starting the next cropping season with some water in its reservoirs, he said and added: “Though the exact calculations for water availability would be made after March 20, but current behaviour of dams and rivers do provide some room for optimism.”
The farmers from Punjab, however, have their own version of the story. According to them, though the Mother Nature came to their rescue, it did not, in any case, mean that water management of the department has improved. Had it not been for the rain, and that too so timely, the farming sector could have been in real trouble, they say. For how long the country could depend on ad hocism; sow the wheat and then wait for Nature’s intervention till the last moment, they wondered.
“The country wasted over 200,000 cusecs of water to the sea despite the crippling shortages it faced,” says Farooq Bajwa of the Punjab Water Council. Water situation in the last few years had only driven one point home: the country needed more dams if it had to avoid becoming Asian Somalia, he stressed. But, nothing seemed to have worked for policy planners, who continued delaying important decision and letting the country into deeper crisis by the day, he lamented.
Meanwhile, the combined river flow in the country on Friday hit 67,400 cusecs, with Indus at Tarbela at 21,400 cusecs, Kabul at Nowshera at 17,900 cusecs, Jhelum at Mangla at 14,000 cusecs and Chenab at Marala at 14,100 cusecs.