Irrigation bottlenecks feared to hamper summer crops

LAHORE: Tarbela dam’s water level on Saturday hit almost the dead level, fanning a fear of shortage of irrigation supplies to the farmlands, especially in Sindh, during the peak sowing season of summer crops, officials said.

An official said the water level at Tarbela dam’s lake was recorded at 1,381.37 feet at 6 am on Saturday’s morning and live storage at just 0.016 million acre feet (MAF) – the level was just around a foot above the dead level. “It might touch the minimum conservation level by the evening,” added the official. 

He recalled that Tarbela dam’s storage too plunged to the rock-bottom level on March 10, but the increased inflow later helped in restoring the lake water. 

The official said as inflows again started dipping, the stored water is depleting again, “and now only the inflows can meet the demand of irrigation water.”

The world’s largest fill-type dam, Tarbela dam is constructed over the River Indus near the small town of Tarbela in the Haripur district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. It is also the world’s second biggest dam by reservoir capacity, which stands at 11.62 million acre-feet (MAF).

Water inflow of Indus River at Tarbela was just 24,300 cusecs and outflow was 30,000 cusecs, the Water and Power Development Authority said in a daily water report. 

Inflow of Kabul River at Nowshera was 20,600 cusecs; inflow of Jhelum River at Mangla was 58,000 cusecs and outflow was 65,000 cusecs; and inflow of Chenab River at Marala was 31,200 cusecs and outflow was 16,000 cusecs. 

Inflow at Jinnah Barrage on Indus River was 55,100 cusecs and outflow was 49,100 cusecs; at Chashma, inflow was 35,500 cusecs and outflow was 45,000 cusecs; at Taunsa, inflow was 42,400 cusecs and outflow was 38,900 cusecs; at Panjnad, inflow was 17,500 cusecs and outflows was 10,800 cusecs; at Guddu, inflow was 38,200 cusecs and outflow was 38,200 cusecs; at Sukkur barrage, inflow was 33,700 cusecs and outflow was 10,400 cusecs; and at Kotri barrage, inflow was 4,200 cusecs and outflow was recorded nil.

Facing an unprecedented water shortage even before the onset of summer months, the Indus River System Authority, in consultation with provinces, especially Punjab, decided to divert supplies from Jhelum River through Mangla dam to the lower riparian provinces of Sindh and Balochistan as a stopgap arrangement.

Consequently, around 10,000 cusecs of water is being released from Punjnad barrage upstream Guddu barrage on daily basis from April 14 onwards. 

Guddu is the first barrage located in the northern most tip of Sindh, bordering Punjab, while Punjnad barrage is located on Sutlej River on southern edge of the province. 

Punjnad, which means five streams, is formed by a sequential confluence of the five rivers of the pre-partition Punjab, including Jhelum, Chenab, Ravi, Beas and Sutlej. Water released from Punjnad ultimately empties into mighty Indus River near Mithankot in Punjab. 

Official said barrages of Sindh are facing severe shortage of water this year compared with the last year. For example, inflow at Guddu Barrage last year on April 14 was 80,600 cusecs against this year’s flow of just 36,100 cusecs. The average inflow of last 10-year, registered at Guddu barrage, has been 50,900 cusecs. 

“This massive water shortfall is badly hampering newly sown cotton crop and other kharif crops, including mango orchards,” he observed. 

On Saturday, combined quantum of outflow from Taunsa barrage on Indus River and Punjnad barrage on Sutlej River was recorded at 49,700 cusecs (38,900 and 10,800 cusecs, respectively).

It is expected that with such outflows, water volume reaching Guddu barrage in Sindh would greatly improve from the present level of 38,000 cusecs. 

“We hope that water supplies would continue to remain steady in the near future despite downward trend, being seen upstream once again, in flows of Indus and Kabul rivers at Tarbela and Nowsherha, respectively after taking into account the conveyance losses,” said the official.