Water impounding in the raised Mangla Dam on Thursday achieved yet another milestone, as the level in the Mangla reservoir surged to 1230 feet above sea level. With this unprecedented development, the live water storage of the raised Mangla Dam has crossed 6.4 million acre feet (MAF) mark, resultantly, about 2 MAF additional water is available as of Thursday for agriculture and low-cost hydel electricity generation. The dam has still 0.88 MAF capacity left to fill in.
Experts said that with this additional quantum of water, benefits to be accrued by the agriculture sector alone are estimated at billions of rupees. In addition, this water will also help generate about 430 million additional units of low-cost electricity, yielding a benefit of Rs 4.6 billion to the national exchequer at the average generation cost of power system ie Rs 10.7 per unit. Besides, additional storage capacity now available with completion of Mangla Dam Raising Project has also proved instrumental in managing the current floods and avoiding loss worth billions of rupees to national economy.
Chairman Wapda, Syed Raghib Abbas Shah has termed this achievement a result of the combined efforts made by the Government of Pakistan, the Ministry of Water and Power, the Ministry of Kashmir Affairs & Gilgit-Baltistan, the Government of Azad Jammu & Kashmir, Government of the Punjab and Wapda employees. This was mutually decided last month by all stakeholders to fill the raised Mangla Dam this year up to its maximum level ie 1242 feet, as the Federal Government had promised to pay off the financial liabilities of the project affectees for the purpose. Filling of Mangla reservoir up to its maximum level will help store 2.88 MAF of additional water and generate about 644 million additional units of electricity from the existing Mangla Power House.
