KARACHI, Aug 1: Water level in Hub dam's reservoir further went up by another four feet on Tuesday in the wake of rains in the dam’s catchment during the last 60 hours, thus raising its reservoir level (RL) to 294.5 feet.
“In fact, the Hub reservoir has received 11 feet water since Sunday,” said Wapda’s resident engineer at Hub dam on Tuesday night.
It was after two years that the dam’s reservoir received rains while its catchment area did not get a single drop of rainwater in both the summer and winter seasons of 2004 and 2005, the Wapda’s resident engineer at Hub dam, Inamullah Khan said.
Having a total storage capacity of 339 feet (RL), water from the dam had spilled over to the Arabian Sea six times -- first in 1984, then in 1989, 1992, 1994, 1995 and last in 2003 -- since it became operational and started supplying water to both Karachi and Lasbella.
Sources in the Wapda said the rains which started pouring in the dam's catchment area on Sunday and continued intermittently till Monday had increased the level of water in the dam's reservoir to 294.5 feet (Reservoir Level), which means that both the city and Lasbela can continue to draw 50 and 30 million gallons of water per day from the Hub source by February.
Water level in the dam's reservoir had receded to 282.9 RL on Saturday but once again it jumped to 294.5 RL after its catchment area received rains during last couple of days and as such the KWSB can now continue to draw 50 mgd of water per day from the Hub dam for the localities hooked to the source.
Asked whether the increase in the dam's reservoir level will have any positive impact on the city's water supply position from the Hub source, they replied in the affirmative, saying as a raise of one feet of water in the reservoir is enough for around three weeks, the city's supply from the source which was earlier expected to be stopped by the end of November will now be enough till February provided the present level of withdrawal from the source i.e. 50mgd in the case of Karachi and 30 in the case of Lasbella is maintained.
It is for the last couple of months that both the city and Lasbela are being supplied 50 and 30 mgd of water as against their normal quota of 100mgd and 40mgd, respectively, from the Hub source.
The KWSB with a view to overcoming the short supply of water from the Hub source is nowadays diverting over 50 mgd from the recently commissioned K-III project to the localities hooked to the Hub source.
Officials in the KWSB said water supply position of the localities getting supply from the Indus source would be further augmented in case it starts getting more than 50 mgd from the Hub source whose level has increased substantially in the wake of current rains.
Water supply to the city from the Hub source was last stopped in October 2002 when water level in the dam's reservoir had touched its dead storage level of 276 RL.
Shortly after suspension of the supply from the source, the KWSB had introduced water-holiday system for the localities getting supply from Indus source to overcome water crisis.
The localities which are supplied water from the Hub source include Baldia, Orangi, Surjani towns, different sectors of North Karachi, Shershah, Qasba and SITE (both residential and industrial areas).
