Provinces likely to face 15 percent water shortage.

Byline: Fawad Yousafzai

ISLAMABAD -- Provinces are likely to face 10 to 15 percent water shortage during the upcoming early Kharif season, it is learnt.

To determine the provincial water share for the upcoming Kharif Season the Indus River System Authorit y (IRSA) has convened the meeting of the Advisory Committee on April 2 to finalise the Kharif season water distribution plan, said spokesman IRSA Khalid Rana in an interaction with the media.

Meanwhile a source told The Nation that the meeting of the of the IRSA's Technical Committee was held on Tuesday to work out the anticipated water shortage during the upcoming season based on the available data. The technical committee meeting was presided over by director operations IRSA and was attended by the attended by the technical staff from the provinces.

According the working paper prepared by IRSA's technical committee, the provinces are likely to face 10 to 15 percent water shortage during early Kharif (April 1 to June 10) and zero percent during the late Kharif Season (June 11 to September 30), said the source.

During first 40 days of early Kharif from April 1 May 10 the water shortage forecast is 25 to 30 percent which will be decrease to 10 percent during last 30 days of early Kharif May 10 to June 10, said the source. During the later Kharif season (June 10 to September 30) there will be zero shortage.

Rivers will have 110 maf water and conveyance losses in the Indus Basin

The Water Accord 1991 empowered IRSA to determine water availability in the country and provincial share twice a year, once for Kharif season and the other for RABI season. Rabi season starts from October 1st , while Kharif starts from April 1st. Since Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa were exempted from cuts in the share, the shortage in water would be distributed...