Irsa reduces further 5,000 cusecs water release from Tarbela dam

As the irrigation canals have been closed for the annual month long desilting and repairs programme across the country, the Indus River System Authority (Irsa) has further reduced water releases from Tarbela dam on river Indus by 5,000 cusecs. Irsa is now discharging only 10,000 cusecs water downstream the reservoir, which has decreased hydel power generation from 3,600MW to 1793MW only.
According to 10th January rivers flows and reservoirs level report released by Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) here on Monday, the winter water inflow in the four live rivers has come down to only 44000 cusecs, Indus 17,500 cusecs, Kabul 12,200 cusecs, Jhelum 7,000 cusecs and Chenab 7,000 cusecs. Irsa is out flowing about 39,000 cusecs water in the rivers and retaining 5,000 cusecs water in the Tarbela dam and Chashma barrage.
The report said that in Punjab province, Jinnah barrage on river Indus is receiving 15,900 cusecs, Chashma barrage 21,200 cusecs, Taunsa 17,600 cusecs and Panjnad 400 cusecs water. In Sindh province, upstream water discharge at Guddu barrage is 18,200 cusecs and downstream 13,000 cusecs. All the irrigation canals taking off from Sukkur and Kotri barrages have also been closed. Sindh Irrigation department is discharging 6,700 cusecs water into the Indus delta downstream the Kotri barrage which is quite rare during the winter.
The report said that Tarbela dam is about 100-ft above its dead level of 1378-ft with the storage of 2.724 MAF water. Mangla dam is 88-ft above its dead level of 1040-ft with water storage of 1.369 MAF. About the power situation of the country on Monday, a spokesman of Pakistan Electric Power Company (Pepco) said that total power generation remained 10,321MW against the demand of 13,286MW, leaving a shortfall of 2.965MW, which was met by prolonged load shedding hours. Pepco supplied 640MW electricity to KESC. Pepco's hydel power units generated 1793MW electricity, thermal 1785MW, IPPs 6681MW and RPPs contributed 62MW electricity to national grid.