Annual Canal Closure For Desilting To Start From Dec 26

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 13th Dec, 2016 ) : Under the annual canal closure plan for Rabi 2016-17 season, Indus River System Authority (IRSA) will start closing down canals for desilting from December 26 to January 31, 2017.

An official of IRSA Tuesday told APP that under plan for Dec 26-Jan 31, 2017 period, the IRSA would release 10,000-12,000 cusecs of water from Tarbela dam and 8,000 cusecs from Mangla dam to meet the drinking water requirements.

Under the canal closure plan, Punjab's Lower Jhelum canal will remain closed from Dec 26 to Jan 12 and the Thall canal from Jan 13 to Jan 30. The canals from head Trimmu will remain closed between Jan 10 and Jan 27 while the Sidhnai canal from Jan 11 to Jan 28.

The canals from Panjnad will be closed between Jan 3 and Jan 20 and from Taunsa between Dec 31 and Jan 17. The Kotri barrage will remain closed from Dec 26 to Jan 10 and Sukkur barrage between Jan 6 and Jan 24.

During this period, canals for Balochistan will also remain closed. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's Chashma Right Bank Canal will remain closed from Jan 1 to Jan 31. The Lower Jhelum canal and the Rasul-Qadirabad and Qadirabad- Balloki canals will be kept closed from Dec 26 to Jan 12 while Lower Bari Doab and Balloki-Sulemanki link canal will remain closed from Dec 29 to Jan 15.

The Upper Pakpattan and Eastern Sadiqia canals will be remained closed between Dec 30 and Jan 16. Meanwhile, the position of the river inflows and outflows at Tarbela, Mangla and Chashma along with the reservoirs levels and the barrages on Tuesday is as under : Rivers: Indus at Tarbela: Inflows 22400 cusecs and Outflows 40000 cusecs, Kabul at Nowshera: Inflows 9700 cusecs and Outflows 9700 cusecs, Jhelum at Mangla: Inflows 7200 cusecs and Outflows 32000 cusecs, Chenab at Marala: Inflows 5200 cusecs and Outflows Nil.

Barrages: Jinnah: Inflows 57200 cusecs and Outflows 50200 cusecs, Chashma: Inflows 38400 cusecs and Outflows 40000 cusecs, Taunsa: Inflows 43300 cusecs and Outflows 43300 cusecs, Panjnad: Inflows 5200 cusecs and Outflows Nil, Guddu: Inflows 44200 cusecs and Outflows 38500 cusecs, Sukkur: Inflows 37500 cusecs and Outflows 7900 cusecs, Kotri: Inflows 4600 cusecs and Outflows Nil.

Reservoirs ( Level and Storage): Tarbela: Minimum operating level 1380 feet, present level 1429.36 feet, maximum conservation level 1550 feet, live storage 0.942 million acre feet (MAF). Mangla: Minimum operating level 1040 feet, present level 1128.05 feet, maximum conservation level 1242 feet, live storage 1.254 MAF.

Chashma: Minimum operating level 637 feet, present level 639.80 feet, maximum conservation level 649 feet, live storage 0.035 MAF. The inflows and outflows of River Indus at Tarbela and Chashma, River Kabul at Nowshera and River Jhelum at Mangla have been reflected as mean flows of 24 hours, whereas the other flows have been gauged at 6.00 a.m.