As water shortage and scarcity continues to create a severe impact on crop plantations, a water expert has urged the construction of one major dam to ensure the requirements of all provinces are met. This was stated by Punjab irrigation Department’s former chief engineer Mahmoodul Hassan Siddiqi while in conversation with the media.
As per Siddiqui, Sindh and Balochistan’s water demand rises during March every year as the Kharif sowing season starts a month earlier than the province of Punjab. Due to the declining live storage capacity of the Tarbela Dam, it impacts the water supply situation adversely every year in the months of March and April.
He mentioned that after March 10, carryover stock is low in the reservoirs and run-of-the-river supplies are only available for utilisation at the start of summer. It tends to impact crops negatively in lower riparian provinces of Sindh and Balochistan due to low water availability, he stated.
Siddiqui highlighted that the Mangla Dam received water flows by the early melting of glaciers of lower and mid-level reaches and thus requires earlier filling. He mentioned that water tends to be stored in Mangla for later use in Rabi wheat sowing. Sindh protests with regards to the storage mechanism and demands water from March/April. He also mentioned that he had discussed and raised the issue of increasing water storage capacity on the Indus River with Sindh officials in a meeting held recently in Islamabad.
