River Kabul in lower flood at Nowshera
A vehicle bridge across the Swat River was destroyed by a flash flood, and now the only way across is by a rickety makeshift footbridge. PHOTO: AFP
The Federal Flood Flood Commission (FFC) has said that all major rivers run normal except River Kabul which is flowing in low flood at Nowshera with 71,000 cusecs water discharge.
According to the daily FFC report on Saturday, the existing combined live storage of the country’s major reservoirs (Tarbela, Chashma & Mangla) is 6.836 million acre-feet (MAF).
According to Flood Forecasting Division (FFD), Lahore, a trough of a westerly wave earlier over Kashmir and adjoining areas continues to prevail. The low-pressure area existing over Northwestern Madhya Pradesh (India) has now become insignificant. Mild moist currents from the Arabian Sea are penetrating into upper parts of the country up to 5,000 feet, whereas seasonal low lies over Northwestern Balochistan.
For the next 24 hours, FFD, Lahore predicted scattered wind thunderstorms/rain of moderate intensity with heavy falls at one or two places over Islamabad, Punjab (Rawalpindi, Lahore,Gujranwala, Sargodha, Faisalabad, Sahiwal, Multan, Bahawalpur & D.G. Khan Divisions) and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (Peshawar, Kohat, Bannu and DI Khan,) including over the upper catchments of all the major rivers.
Meanwhile, the Flood Communication Cell (FCC) of the Federal Flood Commission (FFC) has already been functional on a round-the-clock basis with effect from June 15.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 2nd, 2023.