Provinces to face up to 27pc water shortage during ongoing Kharif season

ISLAMABAD-IRSA Advisory Committee (IAC) Thursday anticipated up to 27 percent water shortage for the provinces during ongoing Kharif season.

The meeting of the Indus River System Authority (IRSA) Advisory Committee has anticipated 27 percent shortage for early Kharif season, while 10 percent for the later Kharif season, said spokesman Irsa Khalid Rana here. IRSA’s Advisory Committee meeting was held here to finalize Kharif Season 2023 (April-September) water availability criteria. The meeting was attended by representatives of the four provinces, WAPDA and all IRSA members. As per WAPDA’s revised Tarbela-5 (T-5) operational constraints, criteria for Kharif Season 2023 (April-September) was approved by the IRSA Advisory Committee.

The Water Accord 1991 empowered IRSA to determine water availability in the country and provincial share twice a year, once for Kharif season and the other for Rabi season. Rabi season starts from October 1 and ends on March 31, while Kharif starts from April 1 and continues till September 30. As per the work out of the Advisory Committee Rim Station inflow in Indus Basin System is anticipated to 95.32 Million Acre Feet (MAF). As per the anticipation early Kharif inflows will be 23.41 MAF, and 71.91 MAF in late Kharif season.

Of the 95.32 MAF Rim Station inflow, it is anticipated that 11.37 MAF will be stored during the season. As per the anticipation 2.61 MAF will be stored in early Kharif while 8.77 MAF will be stored in later Kharif. Similarly, the system losses during the season will be 13.96 MAF, for the earlier Kharif season it is anticipated that loses will be 6.23 MAF, while for the late Kharif season it will be 7.73 MAF. The total water availability for the season has been estimated to be 70 MAF, which is 14.58 MAF for the earlier and 55.42 MAF for the later Kharif season.

Water flows below Kotri barrage is anticipated to be 7.26 MAF in later Kharif, while in early Kharif there will be no downstream release. It has been anticipated that water availability at canal heads will be 62.74 MAF, which is 14.58 MAF for early Kharif and 48.16 MAF for later Kharif season. Allocations for KP and Balochistan during the season will be 3.67 MAF, which is 0.78 MAF for early Kharif and 2.89 MAF in later Kharif. Punjab and Sindh will get 59.07 MAF during the season. For early Kharif Punjab and Sindh will get 13.80 MAF and 45.27 MAF for later Kharif. Since Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) were exempted from cuts in the share, the shortage of water would be distributed between Sindh and the Punjab.

There was disagreement, during the meeting, on the system losses between Sindh and Punjab. Sindh was insisting up to 37 percent losses during the ongoing Kharif Season, while Punjab on the other hand was of the view that the losses will be 7 percent. To resolve the issue of system losses, a committee, under the convenorship of Member IRSA (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa), was decided to be constituted to determine actual system conveyance losses. Whatever the recommendations on actual system losses determination to be devised, by the said committee, based on actual discharge measurements, would be applicable to the system losses determined by the Advisory Committee.

Article source: https://www.nation.com.pk/07-Apr-2023/provinces-to-face-up-to-27pc-water-shortage-during-ongoing-kharif-season