Annual Canal Closure To Start From Monday

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 24th Dec, 2016 ) : Under the annual canal closure plan for Rabi 2016-17 season, Indus River System Authority (IRSA) will start closing down canals for desilting from Monday (December 26) to January 31, 2017.

An official of IRSA told APP that under plan for Dec 26-Jan 31, 2017 period, the IRSA would release 10,000-12,000 cusecs of water from Tarbela dam and 8,000 cusecs from Mangla dam to meet the drinking water requirements.

Under the canal closure plan, Punjab's Lower Jhelum canal will remain closed from Dec 26 to Jan 12 and the Thall canal from Jan 13 to Jan 30. The canals from head Trimmu will remain closed between Jan 10 and Jan 27 while the Sidhnai canal from Jan 11 to Jan 28.

The canals from Panjnad will be closed between Jan 3 and Jan 20 and from Taunsa between Dec 31 and Jan 17. The Kotri barrage will remain closed from Dec 26 to Jan 10 and Sukkur barrage between Jan 6 and Jan 24.

During this period, canals for Balochistan will also remain closed. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's Chashma Right Bank Canal will remain closed from Jan 1 to Jan 31. The Lower Jhelum canal and the Rasul-Qadirabad and Qadirabad- Balloki canals will be kept closed from Dec 26 to Jan 12 while Lower Bari Doab and Balloki-Sulemanki link canal will remain closed from Dec 29 to Jan 15.

The Upper Pakpattan and Eastern Sadiqia canals will be remained closed between Dec 30 and Jan 16. Meanwhile, Spokesman for Ministry of Water and Power said that hydel generation would reduced due to annual canal closure plan.

He said that 3-4 hour power load-shedding programme would continue in urban and rural areas respectively. However, he said areas of less recovery and power theft would face more load-shedding.