Tarbela Dam being kept empty to store Hunza River's floodwaters

The authorities are keeping the Tarbela Dam on river Indus empty to store the water of landslide-dam formed over Hunza river due to a devastating landslide that occurred on 4th January 2010, which may burst at any time, official sources told Business Recorder here on Sunday.
However, Mangla dam on river Jhelum is being refilled as per the schedule, wherein 1.25 million acres feet water has been stored so far. It may be recalled that the landslide in Attabad, Hunza has created a water lake over the Hunza River by blocking the flow of the river. The water level in the lake has risen to the dangerous level of 353 ft.
According to reports, the people residing in the danger zone are being evacuated to safer places, as the lake has risen to a threatening level, owing to rapid meltdown of glacier during the last two days.
Meanwhile, Army Engineers have ruled out any threat to the country's biggest water reservoir Tarbela due to any sudden breach of Hunza lake, as it was far away from the lake and its capacity was much more than the maximum out flow. Officials of Flood Forecasting Centre said that authorities have been discharging more water from the Tarbela dam than the inflows in river Indus since May 11, to keep the dam at its dead level of 1378 ft so that the gushing water of the lake could be stored in the reservoir to prevent any flood down stream the reservoir.
The rivers flow and reservoirs level report of Water and Power Development Authority indicated that Indus River System Authority (IRSA) has been releasing 70,000 cusecs against the inflow of 62,400 cusecs from the Tarbela dam for past four days, though this has helped generate more hydel electricity from Tarbela and Ghazi Barotha hydel power plants. As regards flows of other river, 39,200 cusecs water is flowing in Kabul at Nowshera, 48,000 cusecs in river Jhelum and 21,400 cusecs in river Chenab. IRSA is discharging about 1,70,000 cusecs into the irrigation system across the country. With these increased flows in the Indus river downstream Jinnah barrage, water intake at Guddu Barrage upstream has gone up to 48,000 cusecs and Sukkur barrage 38,800 cusecs.