ISLAMABAD: The country’s two major reservoirs are expected to be filled to the maximum level by Tuesday as flows into the Indus have improved because of recent rain.

Sources told Dawn on Sunday the Indus River System Authority (Irsa) had advised the Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) to start filling the Tarbela dam to take maximum advantage of the improved flows as temperature had declined in Skardu.

It was, therefore, decided that Tarbela dam would be filled until the maximum storage level was reached.

Officials said the water level had already crossed 1,547 feet and would touch 1,548 feet by Monday morning. And by Tuesday, the reservoir would attain the maximum storage level of 1,550 feet.

The flows in the Indus at the Tarbela dam were recorded at 248,000 cusecs on Sunday against discharges of around 210,000 cusecs to meet full indents of the provinces for irrigation. As such, the authorities were conserving about 38,000 cusecs in the reservoir.

On the other hand, flow in the Jhelum river was much lower, at 41,000 cusecs, and about 12,000 cusecs was being discharged downstream. The storage at the Mangla dam was recorded at 1,232 feet on Sunday evening against its storage capacity of 1,242 feet.

Therefore, Irsa had decided to divert water from the Indus zone to Mangla-Chenab zone by running the Chashma-Jhelum Link canal at full capacity.

An official said the diversion was allowed by Irsa with support of all its provincial members, including Sindh member Mazhar Ali Shah, to help fill the dam.

The official said that about 2.5 million acre feet (MAF) of water had gone downstream Kotri so far against the annual requirement of 10MAF sanctioned under the 1991 water apportionment accord.

He said it was expected that flows downstream Kotri would increase to 5MAF by the end of the season because full flows would have to be allowed in the rivers as Chashma barrage was already full.

Meanwhile, the Federal Flood Commission said that all rivers were flowing normally except for the Kabul river which was flowing in “low flood” at Warsak, Nowshera Reach.

Published in Dawn, August 18th, 2014