ISLAMABAD, Aug 4: The current spell of rain has increased the water level at reservoirs in and around the twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad besides recharging the water table, mitigating the chances of drought to some extent.

With good amount of rainfall in the federal capital, Rawalpindi and the hills of Hazara and Galiat the water level has started to improve at Simly Dam, Rawal Lake, Khanpur Dam and the water courses.

The major beneficiary of the rain has been the Simly dam which went up by more than six feet to 2,255 feet by Saturday morning.

“We hope that the water level will increase to 10 feet by Sunday morning as more water continues to pour in from the upper catchments,” said the officials posted at the dam. “Once the level touches 2,260 feet we will be out of the drought threats,” he added.

The dead level at Simly dam is 2,233 feet and with prediction of more rain in coming days the level is expected to increase significantly.

Murree witnessed 62mm rainfall, while Islamabad received massive showers of 139mm at Saidpur between Friday night and Saturday evening, while Golra area recorded 87mm rains and 65mm downpour was recorded at Zero point.

With rains at the hills the water level at Rawal lake dam has also improved by 2.5 inch and the officials expect the water level to increase by 7-8 inches by Sunday noon as inflows continue through the streams from catchment areas.

The officials of Punjab Irrigation Department said that currently the water storage was almost half of its capacity at Rawal Lake.

“The water has reached 1,500 Acre Feet out of the total storage capacity of 3,100 Acre Feet of the lake,” the official said, adding the water level at Rawal Lake has reached 1,735 feet but it is still well below the highest level of 1,752 feet.

“We open the flood gates as the water cross 1,752 feet level,” the officials said.Similarly, the rain has brought encouraging signs at the Khanpur Dam, located close to the twin cites but in district Haripur, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

“The water level has improved by over one feet to 1,917 feet at Khanpur lake,” the officials said, “But the signs are encouraging as water inflow is around 445 Cusecs from Saturday morning compared to 164 Cusecs a day earlier.”

However, like Rawal Lake the water level at Khanpur Lake was far below the maximum level of 1,982 feet.

The data available from the Met office said Chaklala recorded 75mm rain,  Shamsabad 58mm, Muzaffarabad 59mm, Lower Dir 29mm, Gari Dupatta 20mm, Mangla 18mm, Kohat 16mm, Kakul 14mm, Kalam 13mm and Parachinar 7mm.

The Met office has said the current spell was not proper monsoon and predicted actual monsoon rain in two weeks.

The country is faced with water shortage due to abnormal weather behaviour in the current summer.

The presence of clouds at western Himalayas has slowed the rate of snow-melting and deficient monsoon rain has aggravated the water shortage in Tarbela and Mangla Dams too.

The water level at Tarbela dam on Saturday was recorded at 1,472 feet compared to 1,491 feet on the same day last year, while the level at Mangla dam was recorded at 1,158 feet against 1,196 feet last year.