LAHORE – The Punjab Irrigation Department has chalked out a new strategy to address water shortages, with the department telling the Punjab Chief Minister’s Secretariat that it had decided to cut water outflow from Mangla by 10,000 cusec to stop the reservoir hitting the dead level. Sources said in response to the Chief Minister’s notice on Indus River System Authority (IRSA) decision to reduce Punjab’s water share by 45 percent, the provincial irrigation department had written to the CM Secretariat that water availability in the catchment areas would improve by April 15 as forecast by the Metrological Department.
It had also been pointed out that Irrigation Department had issued a request for reduction of water outflows from existing 45,000 cusec to 35,000 cusec from Mangla Dam. In an official communique, the Irrigation Department tried to dispel the impression that there was any water shortage in the province. Sources said the department had stressed in its note that there was no question of water shortage during the current Kharif season. It was underlined that IRSA had already indicated the country would have some 22 million acre feet (MAF) surplus water, which would go into the sea owing to non-availability of storage facilities.
Sources said the Irrigation Department had informed the Punjab government that owing to wet conditions, it did not receive any demand for irrigation water.
