LAHORE / HYDER­ABAD: The Flood Forecasting Division said on Monday that Indus was in very high or high flood at various important barrages and head works.

Meanwhile, hill torrents continued to devastate large areas, including the Eissa Khel tehsil of Mianwali district.

According to FFD officials, the Indus River is in high flood at Kalabagh where the water flow is 510,000 cusecs. “At Chashma, the flow is 599,818 cusecs, meaning that the river is in high flood mode,” FFD official Mohammad Atif told Dawn.

He said the river was also in high flood at Taunsa Barrage as the water flow there was 510,720 cusecs. The situation at Guddu was critical because the river there was in very high flood of 754,005 cusecs. It is in high flood of 650,071 cusecs at Sukkur and in low flood of 299,073-291,773 cusecs at Kotri Barrage.

About Chenab, the official said the river was in low flood at Tareemu and Panjnad with 136,334 and 127,948 cusecs, respectively. “Ravi, Jhelum and Sutlej are already below low-flood situation.”

The Met Office forecast more rains / thunderstorm across Punjab and Kashmir over 24 hours. “The weather will be partly cloudy amid chances of thunderstorm in Punjab and Kashmir. The situation will remain so till Tuesday night. However, it will be cleared almost on Wednesday after which there will be a break of three to four days.”

Guddu barrage passed the second peak of current floodwaters on Monday evening and by midnight or Tuesday morning it would start recording fall in discharges. The officials, who are monitoring the river system and weather patterns, said Sindh would receive the third peak by Aug 9 at Guddu barrage when flows would remain between 650,000 and 700,000 cusecs.

Guddu which is currently in ‘very high flood state’ received the second peak of 754,005 cusecs upstream at 8am while it passed a flow of 735,246 cusecs downstream. The flow has been steady for the past 12 hours until 8pm Monday.

Chashma barrage would pass a flow of close to 600,000 cusecs by 6am on Tuesday that would reach Taunsa barrage, then Mithankot and eventually Guddu barrage to enter Sindh. At Taunsa, floodwater would be around 570,000 cusecs after excluding losses.

Kotri barrage is likely to receive the first peak of flood at 320,000 cusecs by noon on Tuesday.

According to executive engineer Sajid Bhutto, the peak would maintain a steady flow for four to five hours and then it would start recording a fall.

“We have kept our pond level at 67RL though its maximum level is 70RL. But as per our flood fighting measures we may drop it to 66.5RL by releasing water downstream. This helps us reduce pressure on bunds upstream Kotri barrage,” he said.

Published in Dawn, August 4th, 2015

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