The much needed floodwater in the dormant river Sutlej safely passed through district Kasur on Tuesday with the maximum flow of 39,000 cusecs that would boost agriculture and livestock in the area, District Co-ordination Officer, Kasur told Business Recorder on Tuesday.
Talking to this scribe on telephone, he said that this water is a gift from the Almighty Allah for the people living in the districts of Kasur, Pakpattan, Bahawalnagar and Bahawalpur who have been facing shortage of water after handing over of the Sutlej river to India under the 1960 Indus Water Treaty between the two countries.
He said this flow of 39,000 cusecs water is not likely to cause any damage to life and property as people of the low laying areas had already been shifted to safer places after receiving information from the Indian side that India was opening floodgates of the barrages and dams built on river Sutlej following widespread rains in the catchment areas, releasing water into Pakistan downstream Ferozepur barrage.
Flood Forecasting Division of Pakistan Meteorological Department, had warned that river Sutlej at Ganda Singh Wala in Kasur district was likely in low flood during the period from 1pm on Tuesday to 1pm on Wednesday (today). The Flood Warning Centre Lahore has said that all main rivers of the country including Indus, Jhelum, Chenab and Kabul are flowing normally, however river Ravi at Balloki is in Low Flood Level but falling. Scattered rain with thundershower occurred in Upper Punjab, Hazara division and Kashmir on Tuesday.
In its forecast for Wednesday, the Met Office has said that fairly widespread thundershowers with heavy falls at isolated places is expected over the upper catchments of Rivers Sutlej, Beas & Ravi. Isolated thundershowers is expected over the upper catchments of Rivers Chenab, Jhelum along with North-Northeast Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. In other parts of the country mainly dry weather is expected.
On the other hand, the Indus River System Authority is maximum using flows of rivers Kabul and Chenab for irrigation of Kharif crops in the four provinces and conserving the inflows of river Indus and Jhelum in Tarbela and Mangla dams respectively. It has so far stored 10.2 MAF water in the two dams.