A senior official of the Ministry of Water and Power said on Saturday that the country’s live water storage capacity has dropped 29 per cent in the water reservoir which is badly affecting the agricultural and power sectors of the country.
Official sources informed agencies that Tarbela dam had lost 32 per cent water storage capacity as its original live water storage was 9.69 million acre feet (MAF) while the present live water storage capacity was 6.56 MAF. Similarly, Mangla dam had an original capacity of 5.34 MAF while the present live storage capacity of the dam stood at 4.41 MAF, showing an 18% loss of water storage capacity.
The official sources further informed that Chashma dam was not working at its full capacity and the present live storage of the dam was 0.26 MAF from the previous mark of 0.72 MAF, while the water storage capacity loss of the dam was estimated at 64%.
Officials said that various studies had been carried out to sort out the feasibility of flushing/ evacuating the sediments from the reservoirs to restore its lost live storage.
The government had taken certain initiatives to raise the level of Mangla dam by 30 feet from 1,234 feet to 1,264 feet SPD to enhance its life, while live storage of the dam had been increased by 2.9 MAF.
Besides this, the source informed that Mangla watershed management project was carrying out work on raising the planting stocks in nurseries, restocking of failure, protection/ maintenance of structure, conservation of check-dams gabions wire crates and walls diversion and walls retaining walls.
Source said that efforts were being made during flooding season to flush out the sediments by operating the under sluice gates to increase the capacity of reservoirs.
The source said that an alarming drop in the water level had led to a serious shortfall in hydel power generation and was also leaving a bad impact on the agricultural lands of the Punjab and Sindh which mostly depended on canal water irrigation because in some areas underground water was mostly brackish.
If this situation lingers on for a while, the energy crisis would deepen as soon as the water level goes further down in Mangla and Tarbela dams, the source added.