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Provinces agree on Kharif water quota
By Ahmad Ahmadani
ISLAMABAD: All the provinces on Thursday agreed to ensure a “water ceasefire” during the upcoming Kharif season, as the Indus River System Authority (IRSA) has offered the provinces additional supply of water in the month of April and May, this year.
This unanimous consent from all provinces was reached in a meeting of IRSA’s technical committee on Thursday. The meeting was held under Director Khalid Rana to discuss and review the availability of water, provincial quota and losses expected in the upcoming Kharif season. “Though water dispute between Punjab and Sindh has a long history, it would not surface during the current year following the IRSA’s offer to supply additional water to both the provinces during the present year,” said a senior official at IRSA, wishing to stay nameless. He believed the water row between both provinces was unlikely this year because, according to him, a recent spell of rain that lasted during last ten days in the country raised the water storage level of the two dams, Tarbela and Mangla.
During the course of this technical committee meeting, officials of IRSA briefed the representatives of all provinces about the availability of water in future. The meeting was further informed that provinces would not face shortage of water in April and May as there would be 10crore and 80lakh cusec of water would be available during the said span of time. “Around 15 Lac acre feet additional water would be available to the provinces and around per cent losses would be faced in the flow of water during the Kharif season,” a senior official at IRSA said. The official also said that recommendation of the IRSA’s technical committee would be sent to an advisory committee, which, on March 31, would approve water quotas for all the provinces.
IRSA’s technical committee was also told that total 30 per cent water losses in Kharif season would be faced while the flow of water at Jehlum River would face around 20 per cent losses during the entire season. The meeting also agreed to completely fill Terbella and Mangalla dams in a bid to ensure ready enough water reserves during Kharif season to meet the upcoming water demands of the country especially of agriculture.
It is worth mentioning that Pakistan is mainly an agrarian country as 70 per cent of its population resides in rural areas and depends on agriculture for livelihood. Agriculture sector contributes around 24 per cent of the GDP and almost 48.4 per cent of the overall labour force is employed in this sector. Moreover, 70 per cent of the Pakistani exports depend on the agricultural products. Besides, at present, the IRSA is supplying 37,000 cusecs of water to Sindh, 6,000 cusecs to Punjab, 3,000 cusecs to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) and 4,000 cusecs to Balochistan to meet water demands.
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk