HARIPUR, Aug 14: Due to intermittent rain in the catchment areas of Murree, Hazara and Azad Jammu and Kashmir, the inflow of water in the rain-fed Khanpur dam has increased considerably and so has the reservoir’s conservation level, according to official sources.

The sources told Dawn that the rain that lashed the hilly areas of Hazara and the AJK this week had served to increase the inflow in the reservoir considerably. “The inflow was 385 cusecs on Monday that has now risen to 858 cusecs,” said an official on Tuesday, adding that the enhanced inflow had raised the maximum conservation level of the reservoir to 1977.5 feet from 1976.60 feet.

He said the outflow on Tuesday stood at 143 cusecs. The dam’s beneficiaries include CDA, Islamabad, some industrial units and irrigation departments of Punjab and NWFP.

Answering a question, he said the maximum conservation level of the dam was 1982 feet while the dam authorities, in consultation with its beneficiaries, always kept room for an unforeseen inflow of water and prefer to open its spillway for discharging surplus water from 1978 feet onwards.

The source said that this time again the same formula would be applied but after taking the beneficiaries into confidence.

Meanwhile, a young man drowned in the reservoir while swimming on Tuesday. His body was fished out by divers and handed over to his family. The police said that 26-year-old Nabeel Abbas — son of Farhat Abbas and hailing from Talagang — was on picnic with his friends at the dam when he decided to take a bath in the reservoir.