ISLAMABAD – PTI government faces yet another crisis as the watershortage is setto impact the upcoming Rabi season.
A 45 percent shortage of water is going to affect agricultural yield andeconomic output.
The water shortfall would stand between 35-45 percent during the upcomingRabi season 2018-19, the Indus River System Authority (Irsa) apprised theSenate Special Committee on Water Scarcity on Thursday, reports *Dawn.*
The committee meeting chaired by Senator Maula Bux Chandio was apprisedTarbela Dam had attained maximum conservation level of 1,150 feet andcurrent temperatures in the catchment areas presently were promising.
This signifies the depletion for irrigation during present Kharif seasonwould mostly remain curbed.
Also, the committee was apprised the overall storage capacity in reservoirspresently stood around 9.255 million-acre feet (MAF), 32.4 percent less ofits full capacity, which is 13.681 MAF.
Read Top Stories
In the same period last year, the reserve stood around 12.08 MAF, almost 24percent lower.
Furthermore, the panel was told about the current water shortage andSecretary Water Resources Shumail Ahmed Khwaja stated the country waslosing almost 50 percent of its overall water capacity and bemoanedinfrastructure worth billions of dollars had been established by thefederal government.
But the failure of provinces to match these efforts had made it useless.
