ISLAMABAD: Kharif crops are facing an imminent danger of a drought-like situation during the growing season as continuing water shortage is creating major problems for the farmers.
Not only this, early indicators and projections for the agricultural products are deteriorating as water shortage during the remaining four weeks of the growing season is going to rise to 52 percent, reported Dawn.
In an emergency meeting called by Indus River System Authority (IRSA) advisory committee on Tuesday observed water shortage from the inception of the Kharif season last month was 42 percent instead of the 31 percent projected.
The resulting water scarcity would contribute to a reduction in the share of water for provinces during the outstanding period of the early Kharif sowing season set to end on June 10th.
The urgent meeting chaired by IRSA Chairman Ahmad Kamal observed the provinces had received their water share based on a projected shortage of 31 percent instead of the actual 42 percent and resultantly would have to suffer an equivalent decrease in water share during the early growing season.
After the meeting ended, Irsa spokesman Khalid Idrees Rana said the water shortage for the early part of Kharif season had risen from 31 percent to 42 percent as water inflows remained 15 percent below expectations.
He added, now all hopes of the authorities were contingent on monsoon rains for the Kharif crops.
Mr Rana said the real water inflow was recorded around 7.9 MAF compared to IRSA’s projections of 9.32 MAF water inflow in the reservoir, which translated to a 15 percent shortage than the estimated figure.
Till now, Sindh’s water shortage was recorded at 53 percent and for Punjab, it was 47 percent, said Rana.
Snow availability in catchment areas of reservoirs according to Wapda was said to have been 50 percent less than normal.
It added, “whatever minimal water quantities reach reservoirs would be provided on run-of-the-river basis to the provinces according to their shares.”
IRSA spokesman said the situation of water would again be reviewed in June after the conclusion of the Met Office weather forecast for the monsoon season.
