The country would further plunge into darkness, as only 8-days' water has left in Tarbela dam, the biggest reservoir on River Indus, for power generation and irrigation purposes.
Sources in Pakistan Electric Power Company (PEPCO) told Business Recorder on Thursday that the hydel power units installed at Tarbela dam, Mangla dam and Ghazi Barotha were presently contributing more than 50 percent (4500 MW) of the total power generation from all sources, which will dip below 1,000 MW next week when water discharges downstream the dams would be decreased to the minimum.
They say Wapda's hydel power generation peaks at 6,690 megawatts and more than half of this is produced by Tarbela alone. But this capacity would drastically come down in the first week of March, as water's level in the reservoirs has fallen because of low rainfall and slower melting of glaciers.
Punjab Irrigation water expert and canal regulator M. H. Siddiqui told this scribe that only 1.5 MAF water had left in the dams (Tarbela 0.75 MAF and Mangla 0.756 MAF). Indus River System Authority is releasing 60,000 cusecs from the Tarbela dam against the inflow of 18,000 cusecs and 38000 cusecs downstream the Mangla dam against the inflow of 10,500 cusecs in the river Jhelum for power generation and irrigating the Rabi crops across the country.
Sources said that IRSA has been releasing more water from the reservoirs for the inexpensive hydel power generation, as the Independent Power Producers (IPPs) had significantly reduced their production to 3,500 MW after non-payment of their dues by PEPCO running in billions of rupees. Sources said that the government was arranging a fresh lease of life for Pepco by allowing crash flow of Rs 137 billion from the banking system by the issuance of term finance certificates to settle its circular debt of about Rs 350 billion and make payment to the oil companies.
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