Drop in temperature in Skardu makes Irsa's job tough

The sudden drop in temperature in Skardu has made the job of Indus River System Authority's (Irsa) tougher with respect to release of required water to the provinces. According to Irsa spokesperson, heavy fluctuations have been observed in catchment temperatures, especially in Skardu, when it dropped from 38 degrees Celsius to 11 degrees. Resultantly, Indus River flows decreased from 122,000 cusecs to 86,000 cusecs at 1200 hours.
"The storage available in Tarbela is only 40,000 cusecs which may touch to dead level in the next 48 hours if situation does not improve in the catchment," said the spokesperson.
However, Irsa, the water regulator, has managed to release supplies from Mangla dam and issued directions to increase Mangla outflows from 45,000 cusecs to 85,000 cusecs which includes 40,000 cusecs water for Sindh. "Hopefully situation will improve in next 3 to 4 days and supplies in Indus and Kabul rivers' would improve and situation will be normalized," he continued.