LAHORE, July 8: The Indus River System Authority (Irsa) on Tuesday released almost entire inflow in rivers to keep a flood cushion of around 2.6 million acres feet for the coming season.

As the combined river flows rose to 471,000 cusecs on Tuesday, the authority released 441,800 cusecs. River Indus at Tarbela went up to 277,500 cusecs, Jhelum at Mangla to 51,400, Chenab at Marala to 65,400 and Kabul at Nowshehra to 76,700 cusecs.

The Tarbela Lake level stood at 1512 feet against an optimum level of 1550. It contained 5.098maf water against total capacity of 7.2maf.

After achieving a level of 1500 feet, the Irsa stores only one feet water a day as a safety measure. The dam receives major supplies during August and according to Irsa plan for filling, the dam would be filled by Aug 20.

Similarly, Mangla level touched 1192.95 feet on Tuesday and contained 4.091maf water against total capacity of 4.64maf. The lake level is expected to reach 1202 feet by Aug 20.

According to Irsa sources, the dam could be filled quickly given the amount of water flowing in at present. But, it has to keep a balance between the filling prospects and flood fears. For this reason, it was slowing down filling of Tarbela lake and keeping Mangla at minimum to deal with a flood eventuality. Both lakes now have an empty capacity of around 2.6maf.

Due to heavy releases, substantial amount of water has started flowing down the Kotri barrage. Around 1.8maf water has already flown downstream Kotri since June 20. The total flow is expected to reach somewhere between six to eight million acre feet by the end of the season. On Tuesday, the downstream Kotri water flow was 62,500 cusecs.