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Thursday March 28, 2024

Water scarcity falls into danger zone

By Khalid Mustafa
June 29, 2018

ISLAMABAD: Amid the debate on water crisis across the country and emergence of the chief justice of Pakistan on the scene stressing for building dams in the country, a further mammoth dip, in water flows in all the rivers of the country, is being anticipated alongside the prevalent situation that is also appalling. Irsa is all set to place today (Friday) another cut of 15-20 per cent in water release to provinces at rim stations.

And when the water reaches the canal heads, the shortage will be over 50 per cent which is the first ever phenomenon in the country's history. The water regulator has already placed a 9 per cent cut in the water releases and after that 15-20 per cent slashing down in provincial shares would be the second one in row in the ongoing month, adversely affecting the food security of the country.

The top officials confided to The News saying that temperatures at Skardu have dropped to 22 C cent due to which a further huge dip in the water inflows is being anticipated in next week. In the worst case scenario, if the status quo continues, then in just 7-8 days, Tarbela and Mangla dams will reach dead level and that would be the first ever time in the history of Pakistan that both the reservoirs reach dead level in the first week of July.

Pakistan currently has 1.3 million acre feet of water in dams as against the same period last year when the country had stored 5.8MAF water, the official said. “It clearly speaks how bad the situation is.” Keeping in view the impending worsening situation, Irsa on Thursday issued a warning to all the federating units, particularly Punjab and Sindh asking them to make contingent plans to tackle more tough days, reveals the copy of the letter written to Punjab and Sindh which is in possession of The News.

The Irsa data mentions that in the Indus, water flows have so far tumbled by 179 per cent as the existing inflows stand at 95,000 cusecs per day; whereas, they were at 222,000 cusecs per day in last year this time. In the Kabul River, water flows reduced by 11 per cent as the existing inflows stand at 40,000 cusecs if compared with the flows of 61,000 cusecs in last year at the same time.

Besides, the situation in Jhelum that comes from held Kashmir is also not good as the water inflows are at 28,000 cusecs per day as compared to 49,000 cusecs per day in the last year. In the Chenab, which also originates from Indian held Kashmir, the situation is also dreadful as the flows have declined by 41 per cent. “We are expecting a further major decline in water flows on account of less temperature in the catchment areas of the Indus River, owing to which Pakistan’s major reservoirs of Tarbela and Mangla are feared to reach dead level in next 7-8 days,” the official argued saying an exceptional rise in temperature in Skardu and extraordinary monsoon can alone bail the country out of crisis.

Any further cut in the water releases by 15-20 per cent will prove detrimental to the Kharif cash crops of sugarcane, rice and cotton and a more alarming fact is that if the situation does not improve, Irsa will not have a carryover of even 3-4MAF for Rabi season crops as it managed in the last year with the carryover of 12MAF for the Rabi season. “This means that food security will be badly hit.