Farmers To Face 8% Water Shortage for Rabi Crop 2025 Amid Floods
Despite heavy floods, the country will be facing 8 percent water shortage for Rabi Crops 2025.
IRSA Advisory Committee (IAC) on Tuesday has approved the water availability for Rabi crop 2025 with 8% system shortage.
IRSA advisory committee held a meeting to approve the Anticipated Water Availability Criteria for Rabi from Oct 2025 to March 2026 under the Chairmanship of Sahibzada Muhammad Shabir, Chairman IRSA at IRSA HQs Islamabad. Progress on Flood-Hit Power Restoration
The meeting was attended, inert alia, by IRSA Members, Chief Engineering Advisor (CEA), MoWR; Members of WAPDA’s Water & Power Wings; Secretaries Provincial Irrigation Departments (PIDs) of Punjab and Sindh and other Senior Officers from PIDs & WAPDA.
IAC reviewed Kharif 2025 season and noted with satisfaction that the actual inflows of 122.364 Million Acre Feet (MAF) were higher than anticipations by 18%, 10-year average by 19% and last year inflows by 14%. The provinces utilised 62.394 MAF against IAC allocations, provincial indents and IRSA releases of 68.505 MAF, 78.427 MAF and 99.292 MAF, respectively.
The less utilisation by the provinces was due to a very wet Kharif season with widespread Monsoon rainfalls and floods in the Western and especially in the Eastern Rivers. As a result, IRSA effectively managed to get almost all the reservoirs filled to maximum capacity. Hence, the total storage available on 30.09.2025 was 13.214 MAF, i.e., 99% of maximum storage capacity.
IAC also finalized Anticipated Water Availability for Rabi 2025-26. The anticipated Rim-Station inflows of 22.016 MAF were unanimously approved by IAC.
After detailed discussion, IAC approved overall system shortage of 8% ranked lowest in the last 10 years of system operation and significantly less than post-IRSA shortage of 18%. The anticipated provincial withdrawals were allocated as 33.814 MAF which were considerably more than 10-year average and last year figures of 28.870 MAF and 29.427 MAF, respectively. Province-wise details are as under:-
MAF
| Province | Last 10-Years Average of Actual Utilization | Last Year Utilization | Proposed Allocation for Rabi 2025-26 |
| Punjab | 15.367 | 15.561 | 18.207 |
| Sindh | 11.935 | 12.154 | 13.734 |
| KP (CRBC) | 0.528 | 0.668 | 0.701 |
| Baloch: | 1.040 | 1.044 | 1.171 |
| Total | 28.870 | 29.427 | 33.814 |
