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No irrigation water after March 10
LAHORE—Punjab Irrigation Department fears massive water
shortage after March 10, predicting no supply of canal water
for irrigation purpose amid closure of two main dams of the
country.
“Tarbela Dam will be closed by end of this month while there
will be no water in Mangla Dam by mid-March, said an official
of the Irrigation Department while talking to The Nation here
Wednesday. After March 10, water will be supplied in canals
for only drinking purpose or ensuring continuous supplies in
channels located in border areas.
It is learnt that the department, with the help of Agriculture
officials, is trying to ensure at least one supply of water to
standing wheat crop across the province, keeping in view the
availability of water in reservoirs.
According to an official estimate, the early sowing wheat,
which constitutes about 62-63 per cent of total wheat
cultivated in the current season in the province, could only
get three waters which is considered essential for its growth.
While rest of the crop could not get three essential watering
due to unprecedented scarcity of water. It is pertinent to
mention here that before the water shortage, wheat crop is
usually irrigated five times. “Only rain in the days to come
can mitigate adverse effects of shortages in water supply,” an
Irrigation Department official said, fearing cut in per acre
yield of wheat during this season. He said that moderate
weather (below 32 Celsius) up to March 31 will also be helpful
in coping with the threats of water paucity.
He stated that out of available total 1.891 million acre feet
(MAF), 1.27 MAF will primarily be supplied in canals during
this month for irrigating the wheat crop. The remaining water
will be used for providing drinking water to saline
groundwater zone or ensuring continuous supplies in canals of
border areas in March.
The official informed that the reservoir level at Tarbela on
February 13, had dropped to 1388 ft against its dead storage
level of 1369 ft and storage of only 0.29 MAF was available
against its full capacity storage of 7.2 MAF.
Tarbela level last year was 1398 ft with a storage of 0.48 MAF.
It was also discussed that Mangla reservoir level this month
had dropped to 1106 ft against the dead storage level of 1040
ft.
At the start of rabi season of 2001-2, Indus River System
Authority (IRSA) had forecast the anticipated average
availability for canals of the provinces at 18.73 MAF as
against requirements of 36 MAF with a shortfall of 51 per
cent. The rainfall and snowfall this winter had been
negligible and IRSA reviewed the situation on February 6,
2002. The provinces had utilised 14.6 MAF uptil January 31.
The water availability for the remaining Rabi season was
around 1.73 MAF.
According to water distribution plan prepared by IRSA, Punjab
is drawing 1.317 MAF water from Jhelum-Chenab Zone while 0.574
MAF from Indus Zone during February-March period.
Meanwhile, the water availability situation in the province
was reviewed by the Irrigation Department to formulate the
canal operation programme in order to minimise the adverse
impact of canal water shortage for Rabi Crops. High level
officials of the Irrigation and Agriculture Departments
attended the meeting.
The meeting formulated the canal operation programme for the
months of February and March to meet the crop requirements
keeping in view less storage and low river flows. The field
chief engineers were asked to immediately prepare internal
wara-bandi programmes of the distributory channels in
consultation with the water allocation committees comprising
representatives of District Nazims, officials of the
Agricultural and Irrigation Department and farmers.
They were also asked to educate the farmers so that they could
plan their field watering accordingly. The meeting stressed
the need to adhere to the rotational plans so that the crisis
could be coped with.
Courtesy The Nation Feb 14, 2002
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