Islamabad: In a meeting on Tuesday, the Indus River System Authority (IRSA) concluded that despite a 15% shortage, the water availability for the current Rabi season is recorded to be much more sizeable than the average over the last decade, according to news sources.
Chairman IRSA Sher Zaman Khan presided over the meeting, and remarked that the country can avoid the issue of water storage if the government builds reservoirs on a war footing. He said that had there been storage capacity, the surplus water of 11.65 million-acre-feet (MAF) released in downstream Kotri in the Kharif crops season this year, could have covered the expected water shortage. The committee stressed that the shortages could be overcome through better management and irrigation practices.
All meeting attendees agreed that project shortages were manageable and could be overcome through efficient practices for the Rabi season 2019-20. Furthermore, regarding IRSA’s recommended studies to examine system losses, lag-times, and cropping patterns being observed (due to climate change), the meeting decided that terms of reference for this purpose will be prepared with assistance from the provinces. A one-year time window was also settled for conducting these studies.
The meeting was attended by IRSA members from all four provinces, the federal government, representatives of Federal Food Commission and the Water & Power Development Authority.
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