Water shortage drops to 13% for Sindh, Punjab

Aftab Ahmed

Islamabad: Water shortage for Punjab and Sindh provinces dropped to 13 percent on Tuesday following better inflows of water in the rivers.

Indus River System Authority (Irsa) held a meeting on June 1, 2021, to review the water situation.

The inflow of water in rivers has increased from 229100 cusecs to 252600 cusecs. The inflow of water in the rivers increased by 23,500 cusecs.

Water discharge from Tarbela Dam also increased from 90,000 cusecs to 100,000 cusecs. The water discharge from Chashma Barrage has been increased from 100,000 cusecs to 110,000 cusecs.

The water shortage for Sindh and Punjab has also dropped to only 13 percent which was 18 percent on Monday.

The regulator also increased the share of Punjab from 101000 to 107000 cusecs. Thus, the regulator provided also additional water of 5000 cusecs to Punjab.

The IRSA also increased the share of Sindh 109000 cusecs to 115000 cusecs. Similarly, it provided 6000 cusecs additional water to Sindh to overcome its shortage of crops.

The IRSA Authority held a briefing at the Meteorological Department office to get information on the water situation and temperature in the upper areas.

The Director-General of the Meteorological Department gave the briefing.

According to the Meteorological Department, the temperature in the upper areas will remain stable for the next 7 to 10 days. It further said that the flow of water is likely to continue for the next few days.

The Meteorological Department will provide details about this to Irsa from time to time. Irsa’s staff will be in touch with the Meteorological Department to monitor the situation.

At present, the farmers in Sindh and Punjab provinces need water for the crops. Therefore, provinces have come up with a demand to increase the water share.

These provinces had faced a shortage of 18 percent on Monday that dropped to 13 percent. From April to May, the provinces of Sindh and Punjab faced a shortage of 20 percent.