March, 17 2005	Thursday	06 Safar 1426

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LAHORE, March 16: The Water and Power Development Authority needs to keep water level in the Mangla Dam within certain limits because of ongoing construction work there. Talking to Dawn on Wednesday, a Wapda official claimed that two critical works were now required in the dam — one is solidification of Sukhian Dyke and the other raising of the base of spillway gates. He said a sand stone at Sukhian Dyke causes seepage and it has to be solidified. For that purpose, the Mangla’s water level had to be kept at 1,095 feet. Any additional water would generate extra pressure in the lake and affect repairs, he said.

Wapda had planned to finish the job by March 31 till then the water level had to be kept at the specified level, he added.

He said the dam raising works also included raising the base height of spillway gates by five feet. In order to do that, he said, water had to be contained at 1,125 feet. “There are nine gates and construction work will touch only three of them this year. Three each will be done during the next two years,” he said.

Talking about the prospects of Mangla filling because of new criteria, he said, it would not affect filling of the dam. The construction plan was prepared keeping in view the drought situation, but it turned out to be an extraordinarily wet year. But, still there would be no difference for the filling of the lake.

“Although Mangla is early riser and its major filling takes place in May and June. But given the rivers’ pattern, the dam can be filled in June and July.”

He said the Indus River System Authority was currently releasing over 60,000 cusecs of water for bringing the dam level down to 1,095 feet. There would be a 30-feet margin of manoeuvring during May. All additional water would also be delivered to Sindh through the Panjnad headworks, and a maximum of water would be stored in Tarbela during this period, he said.

Similarly, Mangla filling would get preference in June and July and extra water would be provided from Tarbela, he said. The target filling date of Mangla dam had been fixed July 20 for this year.

Meanwhile, the combined river flow on Wednesday hit a healthy 129,513 cusecs. The Indus provided 28,700 cusecs in the Tarbela Dam, Jhelum 44,915 cusecs in Mangla, River Kabul 27,700 and River Chenab 28,198 cusecs. The Tarbela dam stood at 1,429 feet level with a live storage of 1.432 million acre feet of water. Last year, the dam was empty on the corresponding day.

The Mangla dam also stood at 1,104.60 feet, some 9.6 feet above the desired level. Its lake contained 0.832 million acre feet. The dam was empty on the same day last year.