ISLAMABAD: The Federal Flood Commission (FFC) has announced that a low to medium flood is expected in River Chenab and tributaries of Rivers Ravi and Chenab (local nullahs) during the next 24 to 48 hours.
According to a daily FFC report on Sunday, all the main rivers including Indus, Jhelum, Chenab, Ravi and Sutlej continue to flow normally, while River Kabul is slightly flooding in “Warsak-Nowshera reach”.
The actual river flows and reservoir elevations indicate that Tarbela and Mangla reservoir levels are at 1461.88 feet and 1132.50 feet respectively (88.12 feet and 109.50 feet below their respective maximum conservation level of 1550.00 feet and 1242.00 feet).
The combined live storage capacity of Tarbela, Chashma and Mangla reservoirs is 3.143 MAF (22.97 % as compared to the existing combined live storage capacity of 13.681 MAF).
According to Lahore FFD, yesterday’s trough of the westerly wave over Northeastern Afghanistan and adjoining areas lie over Northern parts of Pakistan.
Marked seasonal low lies over Northwestern Balochistan. Moist currents from the Bay of Bengal are penetrating into upper parts of Pakistan up to 5000 feet. Yesterday’s well-marked monsoon low over coastal Orissa, India has moved Westwards, intensified into depression and lies over Western Bengal and adjoining Jharkhand, India.
Lahore FFD has predicted scattered wind thunderstorm and rain with isolated moderate to heavy falls and one or two very heavy falls over the upper catchments of all major rivers including Rawalpindi, Sargodha, Gujranwala, Lahore, Bahawalpur and D.G. Khan divisions in Punjab and Malakand, Hazara, Peshawar, Kohat and D.I. Khan divisions in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) during the next 24 hours.
In view of the developing meteorological conditions, moderate to heavy falls at isolated places with one or two very heavy falls are likely to continue from July 23 to 25.
Urban flooding is also expected in some major cities of Punjab including Gujranwala, Sargodha, Lahore and Faisalabad Divisions during the period from July 23 to July 24.
One or two extremely heavy falls are also expected over the upper catchments of rivers Jhelum, Chenab, Ravi and Sutlej during July 23 to July 29, which may cause a low to medium flood in rivers Chenab and Jhelum along with the tributaries (local nullahs) of rivers Ravi and Chenab.