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LAHORE / ISLAMABAD The monsoon system, which generated torrential rains in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Gilgit-Baltistan and north Punjab in league with a strong westerly wave, weakened on Friday evening, but the rainwater swelled the rivers Indus and Jhelum to dangerous levels.
The Met office reported development of another monsoon low pressure over the Bay of Bengal and said it could cause more rain by August 4 if it moved to this region. “It is premature to say it will move to Pakistan. But even if it comes here, it is not likely to cause flood generating rain,” said chief meteorologist Hazrat Mir.
Mr Mir said he feared flooding in Kashmore, Rojhan and Mithan Kot on Aug 4 and in Sukkur, Larkana, Dadu, Moro, Sehwan Sharif, Hyderabad, Kotli and Pannu Aqil between Aug 6 and 7.
RIVER POSITION
Flows in the Indus River at Khairabad near Attock, Kalabagh and Chashma touched 'exceptionally high flood' stage on Friday and the federal authorities asked Punjab and Sindh to take precautionary measures to avoid human losses.
With rainfall easing, the river flows started to recede in some places, including at Tarbela, but the authorities said that data provided by India suggested flows in the Chenab River were rising after a minor drop on Friday.
“The Indus is flowing in 'very high flood' with rising trend at Kalabagh and in high flood with rising trend at Tarbela and Chashma,” said Federal Flood Commission chief engineer Alamgir Khan.
Irsa authorities said that flows in the Indus at Tarbela witnessed a very high flood situation on Friday morning as inflows crossed 800,000 cusecs and outflows at 600,000 cusecs, but these receded to high flood situation at about 8pm with 530,000 cusecs upstream and 480,000 downstream Tarbela.
Flows at Taunsa barrage, currently at medium flood, were posting a rising trend from 288,000 cusecs in the morning to 345,000 cusecs in the evening, with forecast that flows could cross 500,000 cusecs by Saturday morning. At Guddu barrage, the flows stood at 254,000 cusecs (low flood), but were expected to enter the high flood zone after two days.
Flows in the Jhelum River started coming down from 250,000 cusecs in the morning to about 245,000 cusecs in the evening. Flows at Punjnad increased from 36,336 cusecs to 43,000 cusecs. The FFC said the Indus was in low flood with rising trend at Taunsa and Guddu, whereas Jhelum River was experiencing high flood with rising trend in Mangla-Rasul reach. The Chenab River was in low flood with receding trend in Marala-Khanki-Qadirabad reach.
Wapda authorities have been advised to take utmost care and vigilance in filling the Mangla reservoir up to the present maximum conservation level of 1,210 feet.
