LAHORE: The country’s ongoing water crisis has taken a turn for so much the worse, as the combined river stocks fell to 97,000 cubic feet per day. second (piece) on saturday taking national shortage up to a whopping 51 percent against 29pc calculated earlier.
Put Saturday storage stocks in In context, the figure was 121,000 cusecs. on same day (April 30) last year, while fiveyear average for per day is 157,800 cubic seconds.
Even these 97,000 pieces on Saturday was improvement of 11,000 µs over Friday when deliveries were fixed at 86,000 cubic seconds.
The Kabul River suffered the most with reserves down to just 16 700 µs against ten-year average of 41 200 µs for day. In addition, supplies from the Chenab River totaled 12,300 cubic seconds. against its historical average of 26,300 cubic seconds, and from the Jhelum River dropped to 31,500 cubic seconds. against the average of 52 300 µs.
Irsa halved deliveries to Punjab and Sindh pass on a lack of
Walkthrough on due to a shortage, the Indus River System Authority (Irsa) delivered only 51,400 cubic seconds to the Punjab. against This demand of 105,500 pieces and 32,600 pieces to Sindh against This demand of 67,100 cubic seconds means both federations are absorbing a 51 percent deficit.
“Lack of the Sabbath translate into irrigation materials in in next five to seven days in Punjab and 10 to 12 days in Sindh, playing chaos with cotton sowing, sugarcane and all range of Harif’s harvest,” said official of Punjab Irrigation Department.
According to Irsa, in the country on Saturday was 100,000 acre feet in Mangla lake against his ability of 7.3 million acre feet. To Lake Tarbela concernedIt is hit a dead level on February 22 and did not recover in in last 67 days, leaving the country completely dependent on run-of- river supplies that are now gone down 51 pcs.
According to Irsa’s calculations, which already led to a deficit of 29%, the country should received 8.6 million acre feet of water in April. In fact, he received 5.4 million acre feet – a loss. of 38 more pcs.
“This is a real disaster,” said farmer Syed Tahir Shah, adding that the Mangla and Tarbela dams are collapsing. dead levels in February will affect the late season of Rabi and the early season of Kharif (from February to April), that is, the entire range of crop will suffer during quarter.
“This is also means no water for final watering of sowing wheat and cotton,” he said. “In practice, terms mean pressure on food security (wheat) and basic cash (cotton) crop and therefore 70% of the country’s foreign exchange. Construction new tanks are the only solution left for Pakistan in avoid slow financial death and looming hunger a crisis.”
This was stated by the representative of Irsa Rana Khalid. weather patterns, especially in in last a few days, pointed to more trouble.
patterns of dry and rainy weeks were getting faster and nastier, with Drought periods are lengthening and wet cycles are getting shorter, he says.
What made Worse was squeezing flood the season before start with a rise in temperature in end of March and start giving healthy amount of water (as shown five- or ten-year average values) by the beginning of April and gained momentum in June and the pattern will last until September, he said.
” traditional and heavy flood the season now starts in mid-July and ends in mid-August. Limited storage means constant water problems. And since problem is constant, so should There is a solution,” he said.
Published in Dawn, May 1, 2022
