HYDERABAD: The water level at Guddu Barrage on Friday rose to peak medium flood whereas a similar situation would be witnessed at Sukkur Barrage within the next 36-48 hours, barrage officials said on Friday evening.

This season’s peak medium flood is passing through Guddu Barrage at the moment while Sukkur Barrage remained in a state of low flood, according to them.

Guddu barrage had started receiving medium flood at around noon on Thursday (Aug 4) when it passed 352,171 cusecs of floodwater against upstream discharge of 384,984 cusecs.

According to irrigation department, a discharge of 350,000 cusecs is considered medium flood. Subsequently, Guddu Barrage today (Aug 5) passed 386,589 cusecs of water downstream with an upstream discharge of 415,999 at 6pm.

Water level at Guddu rises to touch medium flood mark

The Sukkur Barrage passed 300,050 cusecs of water downstream at 6pm with upstream discharge of 336,650 cusecs. Kotri Barrage reported an upstream discharge of 185,891 cusecs and 164,966 cusecs downstream to stay in normal position. It may pass a low flood as well in the days to come.

Abrupt fall in discharge

Statistics show that an abrupt fall in discharge is being noted at different barrages in upper reaches, which indicate low discharges.

Chashma Barrage that had reported downstream discharge of 337,460 cusecs at 6am on Aug 3 is showing a discharge of 130,298 cusecs as recorded at 6pm today. This figure shows an abrupt fall of 200,000 cusecs.

Taunsa Barrage is recording a discharge of 194,637 cusecs downstream against the Aug 3 discharge of 381,243 cusecs.

Panjnad Barrage also shows a similar trend. Its flows enter Indus River at Chachran. The barrage was recording a flow of 112,564 cusecs on Aug 3 and 48 hours later, it’s showing a discharge of 85,211 cusecs at 6pm today.

Indus at Tarbela was recording an inflow of 323,600 cusecs on July 30 and an outflow of 244,500 cusecs. This means that inflow had dropped to 297,000 cusecs on Aug 1, 270,000 cusecs on Aug 2, 228,000 cusecs on Aug 3, 200,500 cusecs on Aug 4. On Aug 5, it recorded an inflow of 165,500 cusecs, showing a difference of 158,100 cusecs.

Flows for Sindh are mostly released from Tarbela. Punjab also gets water from Indus through link canals. The dam is still 13 feet short of its optimum storage of 1,550 feet given its Aug 5 storage level of 1,537.56 feet.

The right bank canals of Sukkur barrage are having full discharges to supply water to their command areas where sowing of paddy has been delayed. “An abrupt fall in upper reaches of the Indus river system means that Sukkur Barrage may start facing a shortage of water if there is no more rainfall in upper Sindh,” said an irrigation official at Sukkur barrage.

Published in Dawn, August 6th, 2022