ISLAMABAD, June 4: For the first time in almost a year, provinces will get irrigation water as per their requirement from the middle of June as the flows in all the major rivers have risen significantly, with the level in Kabul river touching the low flood mark.
Indus River System Authority (Irsa) issued on Tuesday directives to the Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda), asking it to release water to all the four provinces according to their indent (demand).
“The water being released today will take at least 10 days to reach Punjab while it takes 20 days for water released from Tarbela to reach Kotri barrage.” Irsa Chairman Noor Muhammad Baloch told Dawn. The water being released from Chashma would take eight to 10 days to reach Kotri, he added.
The total inflows in Indus at Tarbela, Kabul at Nowshera, Jehlum at Mangla and Chenab at Marala was recorded at 316,000 cusecs on Tuesday, which was 63,000 cusecs higher than what had been recorded on the same day last year.
The flow in Kabul river on Tuesday noon was touching the mark of 61,000 cusecs, a level which is regarded as low floods.
Inflow in Indus at Tarbela was also very encouraging and far above the last year’s level. The water flowing down in Tarbela reservoir was 162,800 cusecs, higher by 37,300 cusecs than the last year.
Jehlum was flowing at 47,800 cusecs, almost double the previous year.
Experts at Irsa were attributing the significant increase in the flow at the country’s main rivers mainly to the rising mercury level and recent spell of rains.
Irsa officials were quite optimistic about the availability of water in the next few months. The early rise in temperatures and prediction of normal rains during the coming monsoon season have buoyed up hopes of the officials to sustain water supply to the provinces as per their indents. The storages at the reservoirs were also improving as the inflows exceeded the outflows. In Tarbela, the inflow was 162,800 cusecs while the outflow was 140,000 cusecs. At Mangla, the inflow was 47,800 cusecs and the outflow was 35,000 cusecs.
The level at Tarbela rose to 1,393 feet, 19 feet higher than the last year’s level of 1,374.34 feet. At Mangla, it was 1,162.85 feet which was only 1,120 feet last year.