LAHORE, Aug 4: Tarbela and Mangla dams were close to filling on Monday as combined rivers’ flow shot up to 510,300 cusecs —- at least 150,000 cusecs more than the total withdrawal capacity of the irrigation system in the country.

The Indus supplied 278,999 cusecs at Tarbela and 249,400 cusecs were released for irrigation purposes. The dam level went up to 1539.05 feet —- only 11 feet below the optimum level of 1,550 feet.

On the other hand, the Jhelum provided an inflow of 43,100 cusecs, out of which 35,600 cusecs were released. The Mangla level touched 1201.65 feet —- only 0.45 feet below the optimum level of 1,202 feet.

The Water and Power Development Authority plans to take the Mangla level to 1,206 feet as it did last year. The authority hopes to get 260,000 acre feet extra water constituting 10 days irrigation supply for the country.

The river Kabul at Nowshera also chimed in with a healthy flow of 60,100 cusecs and the Chenab was in low flood at Marala with 128,200 cusecs.