Rivers Indus, Kabul run in medium, low flood: FFC

Islamabad: The Federal Flood Commission (FFC) has said that at present River Indus is flowing in “Medium Flood” in Taunsa-Guddu reach and in “Low Flood” in Kalabagh-Chashma reach and at Sukkur Barrage while River Kabul is flowing in “Low Flood” at Nowshera.

According to the daily FFC report released on Saturday, all other major rivers in the Indus River System including Rivers Jhelum, Chenab, Ravi, and Sutlej are discharging normal flows.

Medium level flows are expected in River Chenab along with Nullahs in catchments of Rivers Chenab and Ravi during the period from August 11 to 13. Besides, low to medium level flows are also expected in the Hill Torrents of D.G. Khan Division and nullahs of Zhob, Sibi, Nasirabad and Kalat Divisions during the said period.

The combined live storage in the country’s major reservoirs (Tarbela, Mangla, and Chashma) stands at 10.147 MAF (i.e. 75.98% of the maximum live storage capacity of 13.354 MAF).

Meanwhile, according to the Flood Forecasting Division (FFD), yesterday’s trough of Westerly Wave over Northeastern Iran lies over Northern parts of Afghanistan and adjoining areas. Yesterday’s upper air cyclonic circulation over central Jharkhand (India) remained stationary.

The active monsoon trough extends from upper air circulation at Jharkhand (India) to Northeastern Punjab. Moderate to strong moist currents are penetrating the upper parts of the country from Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal up to 5,000 feet. Seasonal Low lies over northeast Balochistan.

FFD has predicted scattered to widespread thunderstorm rain of Moderate to Heavy Intensity with Isolated Very Heavy Falls over the upper catchments of all the major rivers along  Islamabad for the next 24 hours.

Scattered thunderstorm rain of Moderate Intensity with Isolated Heavy Falls is expected over Punjab (Rawalpindi, Sargodha, Gujranwala, Lahore, Bahawalpur and D.G. Khan Divisions) and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (Peshawar, Kohat, Bannu and D.I. Khan Divisions) along with isolated thunderstorm rain of moderate intensity over Balochistan (Zhob, Sibbi, Nasirabad & Kalat Divisions) during the same period.