LAHORE, May 12: The Indus River System Authority (Irsa) has decided to delay Mangla Dam filling to support the cotton-sowing drive in Sindh, and has started releasing additional 15,000 cusecs of water for it from the Mangla arm.

According to Irsa sources, the Mangla Dam has been filling faster than planned for the season; it is at least 15 days ahead of schedule. As per dam filling plan, it was supposed to touch 1,180 feet by June 20. But on Monday, it stood at 1,166.36 feet, only 13.64 feet below the planned level even though 30 days are still left to meet the deadline. It was because of the fact that at the start of the kharif season, the dam stood 52 feet above the dead level of 1,040 feet.

The authority has started releasing 70,000 cusecs from May 9 from Mangla Dam against a demand of 45,000 cusecs from Punjab. It is aimed at staggering the filling process and providing at least 10,000 cusecs to Sindh to supplement water supplies for it.

Punjab had placed a request for around 95,000 cusecs for the next ten days and Sindh for 100,000. But on Monday, Irsa released 155,000 cusecs from two dams — 85,000 cusecs from Tarbela and 70,000 from Mangla. This was in addition to 42,371 cusecs from Chenab and 34,200 from Kabul.

According to Irsa, the authority wanted to keep the dam empty at a manageable level to meet any flood eventuality. The way river Jehlum has behaved, it is hoped that the dam could be filled in 10 to 15 days at any given point in future even if there is no flood crisis. Precisely for this reason, the releases from it have been increased to keep the dam empty and meet downstream irrigational requirements.

The cotton-sowing drive in Sindh is already in full swing while in Punjab, it is slated to begin in the second week of May. Water is required now in both the provinces. So it was deemed appropriate to release water now and store it later.

The move is also designed to drive the point home that integrated use of water is the cornerstone of the Irsa policy.

Though Punjab has repeatedly claimed exclusive rights on the Mangla Dam water, and maintained that it was built to replace the loss of three eastern rivers, it is the second year running when water from the dam has been released to Sindh.

Irsa people say it proves the point that all the national storages can be used by any federating unit if a need arises and the exclusivity of rights is on the wane.

An official of the Punjab Irrigation department also backed the Irsa claim, saying that water was available now and could be used to the benefit of Sindh.

Punjab has agreed to release extra water from the Mangla Dam in spite of high transmission losses. It takes almost 12 days for water to reach Panjnad from Mangla. Since the river bed remains dry most of the year, it takes high seepage and evaporation during the transmission.