There is acute shortage of irrigation water in southern Punjab's Muzaffargarh, Rajanpur, Jampur, Kot Mithan, Fazilpur, Dera Ghazi Khan areas because of the execution of the project of modernisation and rehabilitation of Taunsa Barrage as Irrigation officials have not made alternative arrangements for irrigation in these areas.
Mostly these areas are using this water for drinking and other domestic purposes because the subsoil water is brackish. On the other hand, Punjab and Sindh were wasting more than 0.55 million acre-feet (MAF) water during the current Rabi season, the Indus River System Authority (Irsa) has warned the two provinces to be careful in future while placing water indents. This wastage of water has jeopardised the sowing of crops in late Rabi and early Kharif seasons. But Irsa did not take action for availability of irrigation water in vast area of southern Punjab, which produces at least 20 percent the country's wheat.
Official sources said that water wastage, coupled with low water inflows in the rivers puts the water regulator in doubt whether there would be no water shortage in ongoing Rabi season as predicted by it previously.
The water availability for the rest of Rabi season and early Kharif is not possible because the project was delayed as a cofferdam swept it away. Punjab has attributed the problem to the re-routing of water. It said that the Jhelum Zone was used due to closure of Taunsa Barrage, as it was under repair and rehabilitation.
Irsa, according to sources, accepted these explanations but asked the two provinces to improve irrigation management and place water indents in line with their actual needs. Sources said that Sindh and Punjab, after water wastage, refused to accept a proposed cut in their share. Now, the wasted water--around 265,000 cusecs--is likely to be declared system losses.
Irsa's Advisory Committee unanimously rejected Wapda's request to intimate it 48 hours before the release of required amount of water from large reservoirs due to erratic water inflows in rivers and said that the provinces would get no punishment for the water wastage. However, sources said they had been asked to be careful in future in this regard.
Officials say that currently limited water was available in dams but the situation would improve in near future due to early start of summer, and added that the water inflows in the zone, from Tarbela to Chashma, are encouraging.
On the water availability in early Kharif, the committee was informed that little less than one million MAF water would be carried over in the Kharif season. But due to water wastage, it was difficult to predict the quantity of water would be surplus.
The Met Department officials informed the Irsa body that in late Rabi and early Kharif the weather was expected to be warmer, but due to 20 to 25 percent less snowfall in winter, there were no chances of flooding in the season. "But in case of heavy monsoon, water availability may be more than normal."
Late February to early May is the peak of major crops sowing in Sindh and Punjab. Keeping in view the situation, water regulator stores water in large reservoirs in February to meet provincial water requirements for sowing. But due to wastage of water by provinces, it is likely that the late Rabi and early Khareef may face a tight water availability situation.