Hydel power generation: Punjab protests against water release from Mangla dam

Punjab government has lodged a strong protest with the Indus River System Authority (irsa) over release of 45,000 cusecs water from the Mangla dam to generate maximum hydel electricity to bridge the widening gap between demand and supply of electricity in the country.
Talking to Business Recorder Consultant Punjab Irrigation department M.H. Siddiqui here on Tuesday said that IRSA has been releasing about 45,000 cusecs water from the Mangla dam over river Jhelum without consent of the Punjab government which is the sole user of the Mangla dam water for irrigation purposes.
He said presently Punjab needs only 30,000 cusecs water from the Mangla zone to meet its irrigation needs in the month of October. But IRSA has been releasing additional 15,000 cusecs water to produce maximum hydel electricity to shorten load-shedding hours in rural and urban areas of the country.
Siddiqui said Pakistan Electric Power Company (PEPCO) had declared a state of emergency after the electricity shortfall between demand and supply rose to 5,000 MW on Saturday and hydel power generation fell from 6,000 MW to 4,400 MW. "IRSA, without taking the stake-holders into confidence, has unilaterally started releasing more water from the Tarbela and Mangla dams than needed for maturing Kharif crops and sowing Rabbi crops by the provinces. ', he added.
He recalled that water in two main reservoirs , Tarbela and Mangla is stored during the monsoon season from 1st July to 30th September for sowing the all important Rabbi crops including wheat, oil seeds, grams, vegetables and fodder for livestock.
He said if large quantities of the stored water are discharged in the months of October, November and December for hydel power generation ignoring the 6 months' needs of the agriculture sector, then there would not be sufficient water for irrigating the winter crops in the crucial months of February and March.
He said water is fast depleting in the Mangla Dam as its water level has already fallen from 1206 ft to 1201 ft in a couple of days., Mangla zone feeds the districts of Gujrat, Sialkot, Narowal, Mandi Bahauddin , Gujranwala, Hafizabad, Okara, Jhang, Sargodha, Faisalabad, T.B. Singh, Sahiwal, Multan and Khanewal.
Siddiqui said that the short lived flash flood with a discharge of 60,000 cusecs in the dried up river Sutlej caused by water releases by India from its dams into the river last month has been a blessing in disguise for Pakistan. He said though there had been devastating floods in the Indus Zone yet the command area of Sutlej river in Eastern and South Punjab had been suffering from shortage of water that has been compensated by the flood water.
He said food in Sutlej river has also replenished the sub-soil water along the 400 mile long route of the river from Gandasingh wala to Punjnad in the districts of Kasur, Okara, Pakpattan, Bahawalnagar, Bahawalpur and Rahimyar Khan. The flood water was also utilised for irrigating Kharif crops over hundreds of thousands of acres of land in through the canals taking off from Sulemanki, Islam and Panjnad headworks, he added.
Siddiqui said that the Advisory Committee comprising representatives of the four provinces held a six monthly meeting with the IRSA in Islamabad past weekend to finalise allocation of the available water in the dams and the expected run of the river water in the Indus, Kabul, Jhelum and Chenab rivers till 30th March 2011.
He said Punjab has been allocated 17 MAF water against the average usage of 19.75 MAF, a shortfall of 15 percent for sowing and maturing the Rabbi crops from 1st October 2010 to 30th March 2011. Meanwhile water inflows in the four live rivers has been steadily decreasing at their rim station since 1st October after end of the normal Monsoon season.
.The 5dth October water flow and reservoirs level report of Water & Power Development Authority (WAPDA) indicated the river Indus was running with 55,000 cusecs water at Tarbela, river Kabul 22,600 cusecs at Nowshera, river Jhelum 13,000 cusecs at Mangla and river Chenab 20,400 cusecs at Marala near Sialkot.
Mighty Indus was flowing with 84,000 cusecs water at Guddu, 64,000 cusecs at Sukkur and 84,000 cusecs water at Kotri barrage. Sindh Irrigation department was discharging 15,000 cusecs water into the canals starting from Guddu barrage, 40,000 cusecs water into 7 bigs canals taking off from Sukkur barrage and 20,000 cusecs water into the Kotri barrage canals. 60,800 cusecs water was being released into the Indus delta / Arabian sea.