Sutlej braces for high flood as India releases more water

PDMA says 69,220 cusecs of water passing at Ganda Singh point

LAHORE:

The water level in Sutlej River is continuously increasing with a low flood at its Ganda Singh point, according to a spokesperson for the Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) of Punjab on Thursday.

The spokesperson added that a deluge of 69,220 cusecs of water was passing at the Ganda Singh point. He continued that the Ganda Singh point was expected to experience a medium to a high flood in the next 24 hours.

The PDMA spokesperson feared that India was expected to release more water by August 20.

He pointed out that Okara, Kasur, Pakpattan, Bahawalnagar, Vehari, Lodhran, Multan, and Bahawalpur districts were located on the Sutlej River.

PDMA Director General Imran Qureshi has instructed the respective district administrations to complete the arrangements to tackle with any kind of situation.

Qureshi said the central and district control rooms were monitoring the flow of water in rivers and barrages 24 hours a day.

He added that all departments should be fully prepared to deal with any emergency.

The PDMA chief asked the deputy commissioners of these areas to keep revising the flood fighting plan as necessary.

He stressed the need for taking timely steps to protect human lives.

Qureshi instructed all departments, divisional and district administrations to stay in close contact with each other.

He noted that adequate funds had been provided to all deputy commissioners to deal with emergency situations.

The PDMA chief continued that according to the demand of the deputy commissioners, the arrangements for providing more goods had also been completed.

Separately, according to a statement issued by the Indus River System Authority (Irsa), Tarbela, Mangla and Chashma -- the three major water reservoirs of the country -- stood filled to their maximum conservation levels (MCLs) on Thursday with a total impoundment of 13.443 million acre feet (MAF).

It added that the current storage capacities of the reservoirs are: Tarbela 5.809 MAF at an MCL of 1550.0 feet SPD; Mangla 7.356 MAF at an MCL of 1242.0 feet SPD and Chashma 0.278 MAF at an MCL of 649.0 feet SPD.

The statement read that the filling of the reservoirs was a very important parameter of system operations as it controlled and stored excess flows during Kharif season.

This could facilitate the transfer to low Rabi or winter season to meet-with the provincial demands.

Irsa said it had achieved the precarious operation of reservoirs filling amid numerous natural and technical challenges in the form of impending hydrological uncertainty,

This uncertainty existed because of climate change as well as the current system and reservoir constraints.

It was feared that very low early Kharif flows of 2023 might also suppress late flows of the season, correspondingly.

Fortunately, widespread rains in upper as well as lower catchments of all the rim-stations during late Kharif 2023, especially the eastern rivers, allowed Irsa to "efficiently manage and regulate the provincial releases with integrated operation and filling of the reservoirs".

The Irsa statement stated that this was accomplished with the necessary cooperation and facilitation of all the stakeholders including the water resources ministry, Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda)| and provinces.