The lifeline of agrarian economy, water in four major rivers, has dropped to a historic low in the current month, which has created drought-like conditions and put pressure on water reserves for winter Rabi crops, Punjab Irrigation Department engineers told Business Recorder here on Friday.
They said that the water situation was precarious as the combined water inflow at the rim stations of rivers Indus, Kabul, Jhelum and Chenab dropped to 1,08,000 cusecs, against 1,61,500 cusecs of September 12, 2007, though it was also a water-deficit year.
They said that in river Indus at Tarbela, water inflow on Friday was 60,000 cusecs , Jhelum at Mangla 18000 cusecs, Chenab at Marala 17,700 cusecs and Kabul at Nowshera 13,900 cusecs.
They said that the Indus River System Authority (Irsa), which apportions and distributes water among the provinces, was releasing 70,000 cusecs extra water from Tarbela dam, in addition to 60,000 cusecs run-of-the-river and 10,000 additional discharge from Mangla, besides 18,000 cusecs run-of-the-river downstream to meet the irrigation requirements of the provinces for the Kharif crops.
They said that water level in Tarbela dam is down from 1550 ft to 1528 ft in about a week's time, depleting about 1.2 million acre-feet water, which was conserved for the winter Rabi crops, like wheat, lentils, etc.
Irrigation consultant to Punjab government, Engr M H Siddiqi said that a sudden and unusual drop in temperature in the northern areas had brought the base flow of all rivers down.
Indus River System Authority (Irsa) officials say that the country may face a staggering water shortage of up to 40 percent during the season if the current trend of lowest inflows in three decades persisted. Siddiqui said that Irsa has already cut down water supply to Punjab by 15 percent. Punjab was receiving 1,05,000 cusecs, against its indent of 1,17,000 cusecs for the Kharif crops, rice, sugarcane, cotton, fodder and vegetables etc for the month of September 2008, he said.
Irrigation engineers, agro-economists, provincial water councils and farmer bodies accuse the successive governments of doing nothing to tackle the challenge of water shortage in an effective way.
They say the governments should have given due priority and allocated sufficient funds for exploitation of the country's plentiful water resources and constructed water reservoirs for both irrigation and generation of cheap hydel power which would have ensured sustained economic growth and poverty alleviation. Experts say that there is no inter-ministerial and inter-provincial body to oversee water sector planning, development and management, and add that water, agriculture and rural development projects and related-research were poorly inter-linked.
Water experts say that besides sustaining life, water is a crucial factor of production in manufacturing industry, power generation, mining and agriculture but still the current per capita availability of water in Pakistan is less than 1,200 cubic metres, one of the lowest in the world. They say the immediate water shortage crisis in Pakistan is severe, and maintain that the long-term forecast is bleaker.