WITH the Tarbela and Mangla dams rapidly approaching their dead levels, the Indus River System Authority (IRSA) on Friday warned Punjab and Sindh — the two major bread baskets of the country — to brace for up to 35 per cent water shortages in the last leg of the current crop season.
In a letter, it pointed out that both the reservoirs are depleting fast and may reach their dead levels in the next few days, creating problems for availability of required water for the wheat crop.
It is the natural outcome of the prolonged dry spell but the issue has been compounded by our inability to add to the storage capacity of the country despite recommendations and warnings by a host of studies and reports on the subject.
A few days back, the Government expected a bumper wheat crop this year but the projection seems to be a fantasy in view of the fact that the wheat crop was badly affected in the rain-fed regions of the country and now the formal irrigation system is facing genuine threats of acute shortages.
According to IRSA’s latest data, Tarbela Dam had only 73,000 acre-feet of water storage, with its level recorded at 1,409 feet, just nine feet above its dead level of 1,400 feet.
The dam, which has a maximum storage level of 1,550 feet, was receiving 17,000 cusecs of inflow against an outflow of 20,000 cusecs on Friday.
Mangla Dam had a live storage of 235,000 acre-feet, with its level at 1,088 feet, just 28 feet above its dead level of 1,060 feet.
The dam, whose maximum conservation level is 1,242 feet, was receiving 16,400 cusecs while releasing 18,000 cusecs hinting at rapid depletion.
It is unfortunate that the entire agricultural economy has remained dependent on these two dams for decades but the successive governments could not create consensus on construction of major reservoirs despite favourable economic and technical feasibility.
It is, indeed, a sorry state of affairs that we are pushing the country towards a water crisis due to poor planning and politicization of the water projects.
The prevailing shortage might be dubbed as temporary (as the situation can change in case of adequate rains) but the storage capacity of the two dams is also depleting fast due to silt, necessitating timely measures to build new reservoirs on priority basis.
