LAHORE: The river inflows and outflows at Tarbela, Mangla and Chashma along with the reservoirs levels and the barrages registered further gains on Tuesday.
According to Water and Power Development Authority report, inflows and outflows of Indus at Tarbela were recorded at 89800 cusecs and 100000 cusecs respectively, followed by 32300 cusecs and 32300 cusecs of Kabul at Nowshera, 35600 cusecs and 32300 cusecs of Jhelum at Mangla, and 30400 cusecs and 15400 cusecs of Chenab at Marala.
Meanwhile, the inflows and outflows at Jinnah barrage were recorded at 98400 cusecs 90900 cusecs, followed by 126100 cusecs and 122000 cusecs at Chashma, 97100 cusecs and 79400 cusecs at Taunsa, 9700 cusecs and nil cusecs at Panjnad, 42800 cusecs and 40400 cusecs at Guddu, 37900 cusecs and 14500 cusecs at Sukkur, and 5300 cusecs and 100 cusecs at Kotri.
So far as reservoirs level and storage are concerned, Tarbela is operating at minimum level of 1392 feet, present level 1413.20 feet, and maximum conservation level 1550 feet, while the live storage was recorded at 0.230 million acre feet (MAF) on Tuesday.
Mangla was operating minimum level 1050 feet, present level 1086.35 feet, and maximum conservation level 1242 feet, while live storage of 0.199MAF. Chashma was operating at minimum level 638.15 feet, present level 644.00 feet, maximum conservation level 649 feet, and live storage was 0.100MAF.
Sources from Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) said the water flow would keep fluctuating in between 150,000 to 200,000 cusecs in the rivers, leading to water scarcity in the country. Already, water flow into the Indus River has dropped by 40 percent, affecting the cultivation of crops. They said dams have started gaining their levels slowly and more improvement would be possible ahead soon the snowpack starts melting in the upper parts of the country.
It may be noted that that the snowpack in the upper parts of the country has shrunk by 10,000 square kilometer (Sqkm) in terms of covered area this year. The process of snow melting had been slowed down in the end of April, a situation that had led to a hydrological drought due to non-availability of water in dams.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022
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