ISLAMABAD: The Advisory Committee of Indus River System Authority has estimated 31 per cent water shortage for both Punjab and Sindh provinces in early Kharif season while 10 per cent shortage in late Kharif season is started from April 1.
The Advisory Committee met here with IRSA chairman Sher Zaman Khan in the chair to finalize water share of the provinces for Kharif season.
The meeting was attended by all IRSA members, irrigation secretaries of the provinces, officials of Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA) and Met department.
The committee decided no shortage in share for Khyber Pakhtunkhaw and Balochistan, said the Spokesman. He said out of total 62.02 million acre feet water (MAF), the Punjab would get 30.24 MAF, Sindh 27.96 MAF, Balochistan 2.99 MAF and KP 0.823 MAF.
He said Met department and WAPDA apprised the meeting that catchment areas received 50 per cent snow in winter season. WAPDA also informed about rapid sedimentation in Tarbela and Mangla dams.
The IRSA Advisory also again recommended construction of at least two mega dams simultaneously to cope with water crisis.
The spokesman said that WAPDA would move a case to IRSA to further raise the minimum operating level of Mangla dam from 1050 feet to 1060 feet in next 15 days. Meanwhile, IRSA released 45,800 cusecs water from various rim stations with inflow of 45,500 cusecs.
According to the data released by IRSA, water level in the Indus River at Tarbela Dam was 1386 feet, which was 6 feet higher than its dead level of 1,380 feet. Water inflow in the dam was recorded as 17,200 cusecs and outflow as 16,400 cusecs.
The water level in the Jhelum River at Mangla Dam was 1,050 feet, which was 10 feet higher than its dead level of 1,040 feet whereas the inflow and outflow of water was recorded as 13,800 cusecs and 14,900 cusecs respectively.
The release of water at Kalabagh, Taunsa and Sukkur was recorded as 25,400, 19,300 and 4,300 cusecs respectively.
Similarly from the Kabul River, 7,100 cusecs of water was released at Nowshera and 2,000 cusecs from the Chenab River at Marala
