Water share revision
tomorrow
ISLAMABAD- The Indus River System Authority (Irsa) will revise
on Wednesday (April 10) the provincial water share for kharif
in view of raising Mangla Dam storage level by 10 feet (from
1,202 to 1,212 feet), official sources told Dawn here on
Monday.
In a related move, Irsa has informed the Chief Executive
Secretariat that around 5,000 cusec additional water would be
made available to Sindh provided it was later re-adjusted to
Punjab.
The CE office had asked Irsa to comment whether additional
5,000 cusec water could be provided to Sindh during the month
of April on the pattern of last year. "We neither said yes nor
no. We responded in a diplomatic way," said an Irsa official,
adding that Irsa told the CE office that if Sindh could return
the equivalent quantity to Punjab in late kharif only then
5,000 cusec water would be provided to it. As of Monday, Sindh
was receiving water from downstream Panjnad and would continue
to get it for next 10 days, officials said.
To be presided over by Irsa chairman Noor Mohammad Baloch, the
advisory committee meeting of the authority would be attended
by all the Irsa members, provincial irrigation and agriculture
secretaries, representatives of the Water and Power
Development Authority (Wapda) and chief engineering advisor of
the federal government, besides chief engineer and secretary
of Irsa.
Irsa Secretary Sohail A. Khan told Dawn that the advisory
committee would ratify decisions taken by the technical
committee on March 27, which included filling of Mangla Dam
and raising its water level from 1,202 feet to 1,212 feet.
He said the advisory committee would also get future
projections from the provinces about their requirements and
finalise projections for water availability and distribution
among them. Mangla Dam, he added, was being filled since April
1 on proportional basis.
Another official said Wapda had not yet issued a notification
about raising the Mangla Dam storage level to 1,212 feet and
unless it was issued before the meeting, Irsa would not be
able to make future allocations on the basis of revised water
availability.
Accordingly, Wapda has been asked by Irsa to issue a
notification so that it could finalise allocations for kharif,
keeping in view the additional 10-foot capacity and 33 to 54
per cent shortage during early kharif.
As of Monday, water level from Mangla has been raised to
1,104.5 feet from 1,092.95 feet on April 1, 2002, at an
average of around 10,000 cusec per day. On Monday, inflow at
Mangla stood at 38,200 cusec against an outflow of 20,000
cusec and 18,200 cusec was stored as water flow has improved
in Jhelum river in the wake of rains in Kashmir last weekend.
Inflow at Tarbela on Monday was recorded at 25,000 cusec
against outflow of 23,800 cusec and water level was maintained
at 1,369.55 feet due to the fear of movement of silt delta
towards the channel. Minor variations in water level have been
allowed in Tarbela as it was recorded at 1369.33 feet on April
1, 2002.
River flow in Kabul river has also increased slightly and was
recorded at 15,800 cusec against 13,700 cusec on Sunday.
The Irsa technical committee has projected water shortage
between 33 per cent to 54 per cent during early kharif and on
that basis filling of Mangla Dam is on since April 1 after
meeting "reasonable (water) requirement" of Sindh. The filling
of Mangla Dam and releases to Sindh is being done on the basis
of "existing actual average annual uses" of 1977-1982,
commonly known as historic uses.
courtesy Daily Dawn, 9
April, 2002
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