HYDERABAD: The Sindh Abadgar Board (SAB) has expressed serious concern over the declining water levels at barrages and urged the Indus River System Authority (Irsa) to immediately restore Sindh’s water share, warning that continued shortages could cause significant losses to the province’s agriculture sector.
The concerns were raised at a meeting of the board held in Hyderabad, where participants criticized Irsa’s recent decision to reduce Sindh’s water allocation by 25 percent despite what they described as surplus water availability in the system and rising agricultural demand in the coming weeks.
According to the board, Irsa has decided to reduce water releases from Chashma to Sindh from 133,000 cusecs to 100,000 cusecs. SAB members noted that it would take around 10 days for the reduced flow to reach Sindh’s irrigation network. By then, paddy transplantation will be underway, requiring water for an additional 1.8 million acres, alongside existing Kharif crops, including cotton, sugarcane and other seasonal crops.
The board pointed out that the reduction is being implemented despite combined water storage of more than 3.9 million acre-feet in Tarbela, Mangla and Chashma reservoirs. It further stated that inflows into the system currently exceed outflows, indicating that water is being stored in reservoirs rather than released for agricultural use.
