Friday, July 15, 2011

May be another drought in Pakistan: Availability of water for irrigation descresed

According to the sources the water availability for irrigation in Pakistan is fast developing towards an extreme shortage like the one the country faced in 2004 drought.

They told temperatures in Skardu and other northern parts had increased over the past days, but forecasted to drop again over the next days because of expected rains therefore melting of snow of the glaciers will slow down .

Lower temperatures if continued for more than 3 days will lead to a critical situation because water shares of the provinces will have to be cut by early next week and Mangla Dam will have to be utilized to the fullest in order to meet irrigation needs.

Officials revealed that the total water inflows at Tarbela on Wednesday were recorded at 140,000 cusecs against outflows of 150,000 as its water storage dropped to a critical 1.48MAF, about 1MAF less than last year that seems to be sign of concern for the authorities. The situation at Mangla was also not encouraging, adding that about 25,000 cusecs should in normal circumstances be stored every day in these days but only 6,000-7,000 cusecs were being stored currently.

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