Fresh floods’ threat hasn’t died down

Published September 3, 2013
The official warned of a different situation if the flow of warm and moist winds from the Bay of Bengal, Arabian Sea continued to penetrate the country and collided with the cool dry air from the West. -Online Photo by Nadeem Khawer.
The official warned of a different situation if the flow of warm and moist winds from the Bay of Bengal, Arabian Sea continued to penetrate the country and collided with the cool dry air from the West. -Online Photo by Nadeem Khawer.

ISLAMABAD: There is no immediate threat of floods as all the rivers are almost flowing normal. However, if the current weather system results in heavy rainfall, the rivers could overflow again.

The Met office said on Monday that the seasonal low pressure lied over North Balochistan and adjoining areas, while monsoon currents from the Arabian Sea are penetrating into upper parts of the country.

At the same time a shallow westerly wave is also prevailing over upper parts of the country.

“If the low pressure is strong in the current week, it could invite winds from the Bay of Bengal, while the arrival of cool winds from the west could result in heavy precipitation,” official of the Met office said.

Under the current conditions only limited and isolated rain is expected in Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Gujranwala, Lahore, Sargodha, Malakand, Hazara, Peshawar divisions, Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan in coming days, while the rest of the country will remain hot and humid only.

However, the official warned of a different situation if the flow of warm and moist winds from the Bay of Bengal, Arabian Sea continued to penetrate the country and collided with the cool dry air from the West.

Currently, apart from Indus at Kotri, rivers at all the hotspots are in below low flood level.

On August, 27, two rivers, Indus and Chenab, were in medium flood at Guddu and Panjnad. Besides, Tarbela water reservoir is full to its capacity as the maximum water conservation level of the dam is 1,550 feet while Mangla dam, having the maximum capacity of 1,242 feet, is at 1,237 feet level.

Low flood category is the position when the river is flowing deep within its winter channel but about to spill threatening only river islands.

While medium flood is a situation when the river partly inundates its islands, and in high flood it almost fully submerges islands, apart from flowing up to high banks or bunds.

In a ‘very high flood’ situation the river flows between high banks or bunds, and the ‘exceptionally high flood’ it overflows the bank and inundates high bank areas.

The relevant authorities including the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) and the provincial governments are keeping an eye on the situation.

“Since, there is no capacity to store water so any strong spell of rainfall could be serious,” said an official of the NDMA.

Besides, the ground is wet across the country so there is no chance that it soaks rainwater immediately.

During the last 24 hours maximum amount of rainfall was 20 mm in Lahore, which falls in the category of ‘moderate rain’, while rest of the country received light rainfall and that too in different locations.

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