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IRSA predicts 54pc water
shortage for Rabi season
LAHORE_The Indus River System Authority (IRSA) has predicted
48 to 54 per cent shortage of water for the Rabi 2001-02
season, which means drastic cut in supply to all the
provinces.
 According to sources, Punjab's original share will be reduced
by 52 per cent due to this shortage. It is learnt that the IRSA has officially communicated the provincial Irrigation
Department on Wednesday that this time around, it will have to
content with far less supply of water than its original and
historical share. The calculated water shortage is 9-11 per
cent more than the last season's overall shortages. It is
learnt that 43 per cent water shortage was recorded in the
last rabi season against the requirements.
As per the "Rabi Irrigation Plan", given by IRSA, the water
scarcity was supposed to be equally shared by all the
provinces. The supply of water under this plan will continue
from Oct 1-March 31. The IRSA revises its water distribution
plan twice a year.
A senior official of the Irrigation Department said despite
better monsoon, low snowfall in the last Winter contributed
heavily in reducing the river inflows. In the catchment area
of all the major rivers, snowfall was as low as 20-30 per cent
than the normal snowfall.
The River Jhelum level touched rock bottom. Water storage at
Mangla was as low as 1181.35 feet, which the irrigation
experts, termed 'all time low' on September 20. The officials
from the Irrigation Department said that same was the case
with Indus River at Tarbela where water storage was 1.5
million acre feet (MAF) less than the required level.
Sources say overall water shortage is calculated at 3.3 MAF,
so it will be very difficult to feed channels and canals as
per the requirement of different areas. "Water supplies are
critically short of canal requirements," said the official.
Meanwhile, the Punjab government has finalised its contingency
plan to meet the shortfall. According to this plan, known as
Canal Rotation Plan, the Irrigation Department will make
adjustments in the supply of water as per local demands. "We
will give preference to the wheat sown areas in this plan
besides supplying water to other areas," irrigation officials
said. The Irrigation department is scheduled to announce its
plan on Thursday (today). This plan will be implemented from
1st October.
Courtesy Nation, September 26, 2001
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