The Indus River System Authority (IRSA) refilled the Tarbela Dam on the Indus River to its maximum level of 1,550 ft with the storage of 6.45 million acre feet (MAF) on Wednesday by reducing the outflows from the dam after floods in the country.
Punjab Irrigation engineers told Business Recorder that water regulatory body had filled the dam on 19th August but due to below normal rains in the months of July and August, the water managers had to release additional quantities of water from the dam to irrigate the Kharif crops including rice, sugarcane, cotton, vegetables, fodder etc. Consequently, the water level in the dam fell by more than 23 feet prematurely creating up to 25 per cent water shortage for the winter Rabi crops.
Due to torrential rains in the catchment areas of Chenab and Jhelum rivers, the other big dam Mangla reservoir attained its maximum water storage level of 1,242 feet above mean sea level on the 12th September 2014 for the first time since completion of the Mangla Dam Raising Project.
Under the project completed in late 2009, the dam was raised by 30 feet, taking the maximum water level permissible to 1,242 feet. With the addition of 2.88 million acre feet (MAF), the storage capacity of the reservoir was thus increased to 7.4MAF. It has now become the largest water reservoir in the country, surpassing Tarbela, which has a live storage capacity of 6.45MAF.
After storing about 14 MAF water in the reservoirs, IRSA is now releasing all the run of river water in Indus, Kabul, Jhelum and Chenab downwards to the Indus delta. According to Wednesday's report regarding water situation across the country, 76, 400 cusecs water is flowing at Chashma barrage, 67,300 cusecs at Taunsa, 3,90,700 cusecs at Panjnad, 300,000 cusecs at Guddu barrage, 178,600 cusecs at Sukkur and 50.843 cusecs at Kotri. The Sindh Irrigation is releasing 11,000 cusecs water into the Indus delta downstream the Kotri barrage.
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