Daily Times

The Indus River System Authority (Irsa) on Wednesday released 272,800 cusecs of water from various rim stations with an inflow of 221,600 cusecs, as the national water supplies face a continuous drop.

According to the data released by Irsa, the water level in the Indus River at Tarbela Dam was 1449.17 feet, which was 65.17 feet higher than its dead level of 1386 feet. Water inflow and outflow in the dam were recorded as 98,500 and 155,000 cusecs respectively.

The water level in the Jhelum River at Mangla Dam was 1154.20 feet, which was 116.20 feet higher than its dead level of 1040 feet whereas the inflow and outflow of water were recorded as 45,300 and 40,000 cusecs respectively.

The release of water at Kalabagh, Taunsa, and Sukkur was recorded as 178,100, 155,600, and 44,900 cusecs respectively. Similarly, from the Kabul River a total of 40,500 cusecs of water was released at Nowshera and 6,400 cusecs released from the Chenab River at Marala.

The Irsa on Tuesday released 274,900 cusecs of water with an inflow of 226,500 cusecs. Likewise, 257,400 cusecs released with an inflow of 223,600 cusecs on Monday last. The national water supplies dropped by over 50 percent last week, forcing the IRSA to announce that shortage will plummet to 30 to 35 percent if the situation persists for over a week.

According to Irsa’s data, the national river flows on Monday dropped to 223,600 cusecs from 456,000 cusecs on June 13 – a drop of over 50pc. The biggest plunge was recorded in River Indus, from 225,000 cusecs to 97,800 cusecs.