LAHORE, Aug 12: The Tarbela Dam is expected to fill up by Aug 14 while the Mangla level has already touched the optimum of 1,202 feet with Wapda planning to take it to 1,206 feet.

According to the Indus River System Authority (Irsa) schedule, both dams should fill up by Aug 20. The Irsa had been delaying the filling of dams for the last 15 days as a safety precaution.

On Tuesday, the Tarbela level stood at 1,547 feet, barely three feet below the optimum of 1,550. The lake now contains 6.996 million acre feet against a 7.2maf capacity. The Indus supplied 197,200 cusecs and carried away 169,700 cusecs. The water level in dam is increasing by one feet a day.

The dam level might be taken above 1,550 feet and was taken to 1,552 feet last year.

The Mangla-filling has also been delayed by Wapda to meet any flood eventuality and all inflow released for the last three weeks. On Tuesday morning, the lake level stood at 1,202.25 feet, just above the optimum. It had 4.65maf of water against a capacity of 4.64maf. The Jhelum was flowing at 25,300 cusecs, out of which 22,000 cusecs were released downstream.

The Wapda planned to take the level to 1,206 feet, which would provide an extra 0.3maf of water that constitutes a 10-day supply during the Rabi season.

River Kabul provided 40,500 cusecs while Chenab brought in 63,700 cusecs.

Commenting on the situation, an irrigation expert from the Punjab said that despite heavy timely rainfall in the current Kharif season, the country could have up to 20 per cent water shortage in the Rabi season.

It is largely because both the major dams have been silting up for the last 25 years, and the country has failed to build any replacement. It has two sources of water, rivers and dams. Only dams could transfer water from one season to the other. Now, despite a good river flow, the country cannot save water and may suffer in the coming Rabi season.

An official of the Punjab Water Council was of the view that over 13maf of water had flowed downstream Kotri this season, more than the capacity of both the major dams put together. Had the country built even two more dams, it could have filled them and regulated the flow downstream Kotri on a more sustained basis.