LAHORE: The country came out of water shortages cycle as the total water supplies on Wednesday jumped to a substantive 446,900 cusecs against totalindent of just less than 300,000 cusecs, leaving the river Kabul in low flood.

The river Indus made the major contribution with 240,000 cusecs, but other three rivers also chimed in with healthy contributions; river Jhelum at Mangla had an inflow of 68,000 cusecs, river Chenab contributed 76,000 cusecs and river Kabul was flowing at 62,900 cusecs.

On the consumption side, Punjab hadplaced a demand of 130,000 cusecs, Sindh 155,000 cusecs and Balochistan 14,000 cusecs. `The entire demand is being met now as distribution downstream Chashma Barrage has begun and every province is getting what it asked for,` says an official of the Punjab Irrigation Department. If there is any issue of shortage, it may only be because of water travel time that may take next two to three days, he says.

Punjab, however, has also placed an additional demand of 32,000 cusecs from Chashma-Jhelum Link Canal where it is currently getting only 2,000 cusecs. `In fact, Chenab has dwindled from over 100,000 cusecs to 76,000 cusecs by Wednesday evening. Punjab now has optionof either start emptying Mangla dam or ask the Indus River System Authority to start delivering water from the Indus Arm and support Mangla filling, which was struggling at 1,161 feet (against last year`s 1,225 feet on the same day). Risking water releases from Mangla would only further compromise chances of its filling,` say irrigation officials. That is why Punjab is asking Irsa to support the province from the Indus Arm so that it can irrigate southern side of the province from Trimmu and Panjnad barrages.

`Irsa has the responsibility of supporting Mangla filling because it was the one which depleted it in the first place when it started releasing additional water from the lake oncontroversial loss figure by Sindh.

Interestingly, Irsa itself was disputing those transmission losses figures given by Sindh but still accommodated it with additional water, risking Mangla filling. It promised to support filling once supplies improve at the Indus side. Since the supplies have improved, it has requested Irsa to deliver on its promise and help Mangla filling. Punjab does not hope Mangla to fill to its capacity and is hoping to take as close to maximum level as possible. In the best of circumstances, Mangla may not go beyond 1,220 feet (againstfullcapacity of1,250feet)but releasing additional water would only further compromise chances of it even getting closer,` they say.