The Indus River System Authority on Monday reduced water releases from the Mangla Dam to the minimum level of 25,000 cusecs to fill the upgraded reservoir to the maximum level of 1,242 ft during next three months. Punjab Irrigation canal regulator engineer M H Siddiqui told Business Recorder that the current flow in the river Jhelum was 77,000 cusecs out of which 52,000 cusecs water was being retained in the dam while 25,000 cusecs water was released for hydel power generation and irrigation of Kharif crops in Punjab.
He said presently 383,000 cusecs water was running in the four live rivers of the country: Indus 149,200 cusecs, river Kabul 106,000 cusecs, Jhelum 77,000 cusecs and river Chenab 53,000 cusecs. Siddiqui said since the Kabul river was significantly contributing to the water economy of the country, Irsa was retaining nearly 70,000 cusecs water in Tarbela Dam and stored 0.8 MAF water in the reservoir during past week.
He said Irsa had partially accepted Punjab’s request and increased water discharge in the CJ Link Canal from 5,000 cusecs to 10,000 cusecs off Chashma Barrage. The current outflow from Chashma barrage had spiked to 161,000 cusecs. He hoped that water availability for Sindh province at Guddu Barrage would supplement from 53,000 cusecs to 80,000 cusecs in a couple of days. Weather forecast: Met Office on Monday said that rain-thunderstorm occurred at scattered places of Rawalpindi, Gujranwala, Sargodha, Peshawar, Malakand, Hazara divisions, and Kashmir & Gilgit-Baltistan. It said mainly hot and dry weather is expected in most parts of the country on Tuesday.
