Indus River System Authority (Irsa) is releasing 1,18,000 cusecs water to meet water demands for irrigating the Rabi crops including wheat, barley, grams, oilseeds, lentils, vegetable, orchards and fodder etc across the country. Agriculture experts said that the month of February is very important as the winter crops enter the heading/flowering stage in the plains of Punjab, Sindh, Balochistan and KP.
The water requirement continues to increase up to wax maturity. If stress is observed in February, then yield of the crop suffers, they added. According to 14th February river flows and reservoirs level report of Water and Power Development Authority, Irsa is discharging 60,000 cusecs water downstream the Tarbela dam against the inflow of 23,800 cusecs water in the Indus River and 35,000 cusecs water downstream the Mangla dam against the inflow of 10,600 cusecs water in Jhelum river. The river Kabul is contributing 11,800 cusecs and river Chenab 12,000 cusecs water to the running water in the irrigation canals.
The water regulatory authority is providing 53,000 cusecs to Punjab from the Indus and Mangla zones and 40,500 cusecs water to Sindh province from the Indus zone at Guddu barrage. The report indicated that in addition to the daily run of the river water in the four live rivers, Indus, Jhelum, Kabul and Chanab, 2.6 MAF water is still available in Tarbela and Mangla dams for watering the crops till 31st March 2012.
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