IRSA sweats as water storage depletes in Mangla Dam

Mangla Dam is at its historic minimum level, says spokesman Khalid Rana

ISLAMABAD: Water storage at Mangla Dam has started reaching to its historic dead level in this season mainly due to insufficient rainfall in the catchment areas and drop in the temperatures in northern areas which has slowed down glacier melting process.

A spokesman of Indus River System Authority (Irsa) Khalid Rana told The Express Tribune that depletion of reservoirs especially in Mangla at this critical stage is very detrimental and may affect the seasonal crop.

“At the moment water level at Mangla Dam is at its historic minimum level and there are low chances of improving in near future,” he said.

Rana said normally during this season water level rises in Mangla Dam, but this year it is depleting which is alarming and worrisome. Adding that this year in April and May it did not receive expected amount of water inflows which is a major cause of concern.

Sharing the details Rana said that usually during this time of the year water storage [Mangla Dam] is three million acres feet (MAF) but this year it is just 0.88 MAF.

Moreover, within a day or two, water level will further start depleting 2 to 2.5 feet per day, he warned.

Skardu temperature after touching a peak of 34.4 degrees Celsius on June 5 has reduced to 22.8 degrees Celsius and impacting the river inflows badly.



As Irsa has started releasing water from storage to augment the river supplies thus both the reservoirs are depleting and after touching a peak storage of 2.180 MAF on June 18 till today it has been reduced to 1.884 MAF i.e. -0.296 MAF.

Meanwhile river inflows after touching peak flows of 378,400 cusecs have been reduced to 256,200 cusecs on Saturday which is 122,200 cusecs.

Rana further explained that Irsa only tried to manage the available resources by switching between Indus, Jhelum and Chenab zones and still no cut is imposed to any of the stakeholder.

“However,  if the situation continues for next 24 or 48 hours then Irsa may impose an initial cut of 5 to 10 per cent to Punjab and Sindh on their indents,” he cautioned.

Rana further said it is expected that Pakistan would receive monsoon showers at the end of next week therefore Irsa is hoping that showers may help in improving water level in unregulated rivers which includes Kabul and Chenab resultantly Irsa will again switch to storage of waters in reservoirs.

According to Irsa, this year continues to be critical for water management and distribution. If Pakistan receives below normal showers during monsoon, then situation will further worsen and get critical, it warned.

While taking into account the alarming situation, Irsa has already written letters to the provinces informing them about the alarming situation.