As the monsoon has entered in a weaker phase after mid-August in Pakistan the water flows in four rivers have sharply dropped forcing the Indus River System Authority to release 60,000 cusecs water from the dams to meet urgent irrigation water needs for growing/maturing the strategic cash Kharif crops that are at a critical stage of their maturity across the country.
Sounding a bit worried, Punjab Irrigation Engineers told Business Recorder on Friday that flow in the mighty Indus river has dropped to 1,57,700 from the expected 2,36,000 cusecs, in river Kabul from 47,000 cusecs to 26,800 cusecs, in river Jhelum from 38,000 cusecs to 18,800 cusecs and in the river Chenab from 85,000 cusecs to 58,000 cusecs.
They said that instead of keeping the reservoirs filled for sowing the Rabbi crops in October / November, the national water regulatory body has decided to give priority to the growth / maturity of summer crops including cotton, rice, sugarcane, maize, fodder crops for livestock, vegetables, fruit orchards etc and meet water indents of the provinces.
IRSA is thus releasing 53,000 cusecs water from the Tarbela dam and 5,000 cusecs from the Mangla dam on the Jhelum river to meet the shortfall. Mangla reservoir is still 7 ft below its maximum conservation level of 1242 ft above the sea level.
They said Punjab has put up an indent of 34,000 cusecs of water and Sindh province has sent its indent of 1,70,000 cusecs to be drawn from the Indus river downstream the Guddu barrage in upper Sindh. However, in view of unexpected drop of flows in the four live rivers, Sindh province will reduce its indent to the minimum level, they hoped.
According to the Pakistan Meteorological department rainfall update till 15th August, during the period 1st July to 15th August , rainfall over the country as whole has been below to its normal value (-27 percent) During past two weeks, on regional scale, rainfall has been observed below normal over almost all regions except GB & KPK where is have been above and close to normal respectively.
In month of July, on regional scale, rainfall was observed below normal over almost all regions except Sindh where was close to normal. Weather Forecast for today: Mainly hot and humid weather is expected in most part of the country. However, rain-thunderstorm is expected at isolated places in Malakand, Hazara, Rawalpindi, Gujranwala divisions, Gilgit-Baltistan and Kashmir.