One more dam needed urgently, says expert

Irrigation department consultant says it will meet water needs of Sindh, Balochistan

LAHORE: As water scarcity during crop plantations sparks worries, a water expert has underscored the need for constructing at least one more big dam in order to meet future needs of the provinces.

“An additional water reservoir must be built on an urgent basis in order to address shortages in Sindh and Balochistan,” said Punjab Irrigation Department’s former chief engineer Mahmoodul Hassan Siddiqi while talking to farmers and the media.



According to Siddiqi, water demand in summer from Sindh and Balochistan picks up from March every year as their Kharif sowing season starts a month earlier than Punjab’s. As Tarbela Dam has lost its live storage capacity by about one-third from 9.5 million acre feet to nearly 6 MAF, water supply is squeezed in March and April every year.

“We usually don’t have carryover stock in the reservoirs after March 10 and run-of-the-river supplies are only available for utilisation at the onset of summer. This has a direct negative impact on crops due to insufficient water in lower riparian provinces of Sindh and Balochistan,” Siddiqi said.

Rich with experience of over 60 years in water distribution and regulation, Siddiqi is presently working with the Punjab Irrigation Department as a consultant with the task of handling water management affairs.

He is responsible for planning optimal utilisation of available water resources in addition to interacting with the Indus River System Authority (Irsa) about shares of provinces and running an efficient canal water management system.

Siddiqi said he had raised the issue of increasing water storage capacity on the Indus River with Sindh officials during a recent meeting in the federal capital.



He pointed out that the Mangla Dam was fed by early melting of glaciers of lower and mid-level reaches and thus needed to be filled earlier. “As we start to store water in Mangla for subsequent use in Rabi wheat sowing, Sindh starts objecting to the storage mechanism and demands water from March/April,” he explained.

“It is not possible as the water level in Mangla should have been raised up to 1,180 feet till May 20 if we want to ensure it remains filled to capacity in later months when its flow dwindles fast unlike the Indus River.”

Published in The Express Tribune, April 28^th, 2017.

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