After acquiring no objection certificate (NoC) from the Punjab, Indus River System Authority (Irsa) has decided to distribute water for Kharif season 2005 starting from April 1 as per para-2 of the Water Apportionment Accord 1991. "Punjab had no objection over the distribution of water among the four federating units in accordance with para-2 of the Water Accord," an official who attended the meeting of technical committee of Irsa here on Monday, told Business Recorder. "Sindh was demanding water distribution as per para-2 of the Accord since long, but Punjab was the hurdle however this time it raised no objection."
The decisions of technical committee of Irsa would be accorded formal approval in the meeting of advisory committee expected some time in the first week of April.
Sindh would have 5 MAF additional water during the Kharif as compared to Punjab in the wake of water distribution as per para 2 of the 1991 Accord.
The meeting which was presided over by the Chairman, Aman Gul Khattak, was attended by Irsa members, Chief Engineer Wapda, Director Regulations of Sindh Irrigation and Power department, Consultant to Punjab on Irrigation and Superintendent Engineer Irrigation of the NWFP.
The official said that the four provinces agreed in the meeting on water distribution on para-2 of the Accord keeping in view the availability of water for Kharif season, which is to start from April 1, 2005.
"During Kharif, country would have 121.9 MAF water while irrigation requirements stand at 74 MAF." After 1998, water distribution took place on the basis of clause 14(b) of the Accord as a result of shortage. Under the clause, water distribution should be made on the basis of historic average annual uses of 1977-82 in case of shortage. Since there would be no shortage in the coming season, the shares of Punjab and Sindh would be 37.07 million acre-feet and 33.94 MAF, respectively, under paragraph 2 of the accord.
The official of water regulatory body said that the country has enough water to cater to the indents of the provinces during the Kharif season as Irsa would have this time 3 MAF water as carry over in the dams.
He said that the meeting also took the decision to bring down the water level in Mangla Dam to 1135 feet instead of 1125 feet by May 31, as decided earlier.
The Wapda wants to lower water level in Mangla to complete some technical work on the bed of reservoir and spillways, which is the part of over Rs 62 billion project of Mangla raising. To a question, the official said that system losses have increased to 15 percent at Indus and 5 percent at Chenab and Jhelum.
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