KARACHI, Aug 25: Water level in the Hub Dam has receded to 305 RL (Reservoir Level) as its catchment area, spreading over 3,410 sq-miles, remained dry for the second consecutive year.
According to sources, Wapda officials manning the Hub Dam have already informed both beneficiaries of the dam — the KWSB and the Balochistan government — that if they continued to draw the present quantity of water from the dam, its supply would come to an end in the next six months.
“At present, water level in the dam’s reservoir is 305 RL and supply from the source comes to a grinding halt when it touches its dead storage level of 276 RL,” they pointed out.
Karachi currently was fetching 100 million gallons of water from the Hub Dam, and the localities hooked to the dam include Orangi, Baldia, and Surjani towns, Saeedabad, Mianwalli Colony, Qasba, Disco Moar and some sectors of North Karachi.
The sources said that although the dam’s catchment area comprised areas of Dadu district, Kirthar National Park, Saruna, Duraji, and Shah Noorani area in Balochistan, it had received no rains, neither in the last monsoon nor in the current season.
The sources were of the view that the KWSB could continue to fetch water from Hub even beyond six months from the source if it decided to curtail its present quantity of supply from the source till June or July, 2006. The K-III project is expected to be completed by then, with which the city will get an additional 100 mgd.
“The KWSB might overcome water shortage in the localities hooked to the Hub source by diverting some quantity of water from the Indus source as they had done in Oct 2002 when water level in the dam’s reservoir touched the dead storage level of 276 RL,” the source said.
He recalled that the KWSB during this period had introduced the water-holiday system once a week in certain city areas getting water from the Indus source on rotation basis so that the same could be diverted to localities hooked to the Hub source.
Tracing the Hub Dam’s history, the sources said that it was completed in June 1981 and was supplying water to Karachi since then.
It, however, first went dry in July 1999 when its lake touched the lowest ever level of 272 ft as against its dead storage level of 276 ft. This was because the dam’s catchment area had remained dry for four previous monsoon seasons, resulting in complete stoppage of supply to the city on July 14, 1999.
Water supply from the Hub Dam was restored in Aug 2001 after its catchment area had received rains in 2000.
Supply from the dam was once again stopped in Oct 2002 and restored in June 2003.
