Mangla becomes country’s largest reservoir

E-Paper | March 15, 2026

LAHORE: The raised Mangla Dam became the country’s biggest reservoir on Sunday when water storage in its lake rose to 6.65 million acre feet, surpassing 6.58MAF, the maximum live storage capacity of Tarbela Dam.

“Water storage in the Mangla Lake increased to 6.65MAF this morning, as against 6.58MAF maximum live storage capacity of Tarbela Dam that used to be the biggest reservoir till Aug 24, 2013,” a Wapda spokesman said.

The Mangla Lake now has 2.88MAF of additional water available to be used for agriculture and generation of hydel electricity.

The height of Mangla Dam has been raised by 30 feet which has enabled its reservoir to restore water up to 1,242 feet against the previous conservation level of 1,202 feet above the mean sea level.

“…[as a result] the live storage capacity of the raised Mangla Dam has increased to 7.39MAF from 4.51MAF. Given the current weather forecast, the prospects for filling of Mangla reservoir to its maximum conservation level are bright,” said the spokesman.

Water in Mangla crossed 1,232.5 feet level on Sunday morning, leaving 2.14MAF of additional water available in the reservoir. In addition to managing the current floods, the dam will ensure the country benefits worth billions of rupees in agriculture and power sector by utilising the additional water.

The spokesman said that filling of additional water in Mangla this year reflected the federal government’s resolve to conservation and optimal utilisation of water for agriculture-based economy.

“Last month, it was mutually decided by all stakeholders to fill the raised Mangla Dam this year up to its maximum level, as for the purpose the federal government had promised to pay off the financial liabilities of the affected persons of the project.

“The additional water that has so far been stored in the Mangla lake is a result of the concerted efforts of the Pakistan government, the Ministry of Water and Power, the Ministry of Kashmir Affairs and Gilgit-Baltistan, the governments of Azad Jammu and Kashmir besides Punjab and Wapda.”

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riaz akbar

Aug 26, 2013 08:02am

Can any body clarify that water level in the dam be represented by mean sea level?. I differ on this that actual storage is required to be checked as in my opinion, water level is NOT 1242 feet because it contains layers of sedimentation since building of dam.

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M. Omar

Aug 26, 2013 08:58am

That is not a picture of Mangla Dam.

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Akhter Husain

Aug 26, 2013 10:41am

Some thing is better than nothing.Why to be complacent and have grudge about it.

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Aadami

Aug 26, 2013 11:21am

@riaz akbar: You are absolutely correct there are layers of sediments, but then we are talking about Pakistan where you will hear everything but the facts.

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ENGR. ATIQ-UZ-ZAMAN KHAN

Aug 26, 2013 01:43pm

One must also see the brighter side of the picture, i.e. it can now store Mash-Allah more water for more cultivation of land, and more water available for power generation.

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ahmad

Aug 26, 2013 02:58pm

Tarbela and Mangla were build in the 1960's. We need to immediately start work on more water reservoirs such as Munda Dam, Akhori Dam, Khurram Tangi Dam, Diamer Basha Dam, 32 small dams project and even Kalabagh Dam to meet the country's future demand for water. Surprisingly enough, for almost all of the above mentioned projects the feasibility studies are already completed. I hope the government wakes up on this issue.

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noor

Aug 26, 2013 03:25pm

@M. Omar : It is Baglihar Dam's pic... so sad that a paper of Dawn's calibrate committing such blunder.... we owe an apology and correction from DAWN.

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Saleem

Aug 26, 2013 05:38pm

If there r layers of sediment deposit then they will be on other Dams also. The main point we need to look at it is that we will store more water this year as compared to last year or previous year, which is good & that is the bottom line.

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Saleem

Aug 26, 2013 05:50pm

If we assume that the dam current capacity has increased from 4.51 to 7.30 MAF, then it is an increase in (7.3-4.51)/4.51 x 100= 61.8% capacity. If we assume that actual capacity was actuall 4 MAF & 0.51 is silt now then (7.39-0.51-4.0)/4.0 x 100 = 72%. In case if we assume some fillup the %age increase in higher.

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Nadeem Chaudhry

Aug 26, 2013 06:09pm

Dawn group needs to have higher standards in reporting. The reporters are generally making up stories, photographs and fabricated facts. After reading many of the articles, it appears that the reporters did not research the story.

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Saleem

Aug 26, 2013 06:37pm

I have just checked. The initial capacity of this Dam was 5.88 MAF & now it is quoted as 4.5 MAF due to filling of sediments

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Ali Khattak

Aug 26, 2013 07:21pm

@riaz akbar: Mangla reservoir, before the start of this project, had a capacity of 5.88 MAF. In the article, it states that it is 4.51 MAF. Thus, sedimentation is accounted for in this figure. Roughly 23% of the initial capacity has been lost. 1242 feet would, of course, be the elevation of the water surface above sea level. Given that the city of Jehlum is 250 m, 825 feet, above sea level, the maximum possible depth of the reservoir would be 417 feet. Of course, it would actually be less than this as Jehlum is roughly 30 km downstream of the dam.

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Waseem

Aug 26, 2013 08:03pm

Both Tarbela and Mangla dams were built by so called dictators......This project was started and mostly done in Musharaf's era. Diamer Bhasha Dam was also started in his era. When will our 'democratically elected' leaders will show that vision? Will that time ever come? At least they can push to complete the long delayed projects.........Think Pakistan.......If Sudan and Egypt can work out differences over use of river Nile.....why cant' we work that out amongst ourselves?....Think Pakistan, please.

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Tamma

Aug 26, 2013 08:58pm

@noor: poor , warless journalism ,

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Talal

Aug 26, 2013 11:15pm

The live storage capacity of tarbela is stated at 9.7 MAF on WAPDA's website. Can you at least quote any actual sources for your information? P.S: A "wapda spokesman" does not count as a source.

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shahzad khan

Aug 26, 2013 11:34pm

SHUKAR ALHAMDULILAH

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shahzad khan

Aug 26, 2013 11:33pm

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shahzad khan

Aug 26, 2013 11:35pm

@noor: hm

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