ISLAMABAD -   Indus River System Authority (Irsa) has decided to increase the supply of water to Sindh and Punjab after the inflows in the Indus and its tributaries have increased by almost 49,000 cusecs.

Keeping in view the increased water flows in the rivers, Irsa has decided to increase the water supply to Sindh by 17,000 cusecs and to Punjab by 8,000 cusecs, Irsa’s spokesperson Khalid Rana said. The water inflows in Indus and its tributaries have considerably improved during the past 24 hours and it was enhanced to 106,000 cusecs on March 24 from the early 57,000 cusecs, the spokesman said.

He said the water availability situation in the rivers was low till March 22 and Irsa has asked the provinces to avoid early sowing of Kharif crops. Inflows at Tarbela were 16,400 cusecs and outflows 15,600 cusecs, the inflows of Kabul at Nowshera was 5,000 cusecs and outflows 5,000 cusecs, Jhelum at Mangla inflows were 17,400 cusecs and outflows 18,000 cusecs while inflows of Chenab at Marala were 11,700 cusecs and outflows were 4,500 cusecs.

On March 23, inflows and outflows at Tarbela were increased to 20,500 cusecs and 19,700 cusecs, respectively. The inflows and outflows of Kabul at Nowshera were also increased to 6,300 cusecs and outflows 6,300 cusecs, respectively. The inflows of Jhelum at Mangla were 19,200 cusecs and outflows 19,200 cusecs while inflows of Chenab at Marala were the same 11,700 cusecs and outflows were 4,500 cusecs.

On March 24, the water flows in the rivers were considerably improved and inflows in Indus at Tarbela has increased to 36,100 cusecs and outflows to 28,000 cusecs, inflow in Kabul at Nowshera were 31,000 cusecs and outflows were 31,000 cusecs, inflows in Jhelum at Mangla were 26,900 cusecs and outflows were 26,500 cusecs, inflows in Chenab at Marala were 12,100 cusecs and outflows 4,500 cusecs.

The Irsa spokesman further said that total inflow in the country was reached to 106,100 cusecs from Thursday’s 57,500 cusecs. However, the outflows were increased to 96,500 cusecs from the Thursday’s 56,700 cusecs.

Keeping in view the increase in river inflows, Irsa has increased water releases to provinces from Saturday. Sindh will get 39,000 cusecs instead of 22,000 Cusecs and Punjab will get 38,000 cusecs instead of 30,000 cusecs.

The spokesman said that Balochistan will close its canals from 1st April 2017 as per their schedule / plan while Sindh will also close its canals of Guddu Barrage and Right side of Sukkur Barrage as per their schedule from 1st April 2017.

It is pertinent to mention here that on Thursday IRSA has closed three canals, supplying water to Punjab, including Taunsa Panjnad link canal, Trimmu and Panjand canal. By adjusting the water additional 4000 to 5000 cusec water will be available for the Sindh province from Saturday, the spokesman said. This arrangement will continue till March 31.End