Chenab water level likely to surge following ongoing rains in Indian-occupied Kashmir, Punjab

LAHORE: The water level in the Chenab River is set to rise in the coming two days because of rains in catchment areas of Indian-administered Kashmir and showers in Punjab.

“Currently, the Chenab River is experiencing floods of medium level and its level might increase further and move into high-flood category owing to predictions of heavy rain for the coming three to four days in both held Kashmir and Punjab,” an official from Punjab Irrigation Department told Dawn on Monday.

“This might be the case if there were heavy rains in catchment areas of held Kashmir and Punjab, as foreseen,” he said.

However, the Flood Forecasting Division (FFD) of the Pakistan Meteorological Department forecast high flood levels in major rivers like Chenab and nullahs due to heavy rains up to July 24.

In terms of flows of the major rivers, the FFD said that the flow levels of all major rivers were expected to be very high by July 24 as a result of the prevailing westerly wave and the presence of a strong monsoon incursion from the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal in the catchments of all major rivers.

“The level of high floods is expected in River Chenab at Marala, River Jhelum upstream of Mangla and associated nullahs of the Jhelum and Chenab (Dora, Dotta, Dowara, Bhimber, Halsi, Aik and Palkhu) and Ravi (Bein, Bassanter, Deg and Sakki). The flow level of high floods is also expected in River Kabul and its associated tributaries,” it said.

The agency also predicted flash floods in the hill torrents of DG Khan, streams of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and northern Balochistan, and urban flooding in Rawalpindi, Jhelum, Gujranwala, Sargodha, Khushab, Sialkot, Gujrat, Narowal, Lahore, Okara, Sahiwal, Bahawalnagar and Faisalabad.

The FFD also gave an overview of the present situation of water flows in different gauging stations.

In this regard, it was noted that the River Indus was flowing at “low and below-low levels” at several gauging stations like Tarbela, Kalabagh, Chashma, Taunsa, Guddu.