Water level drops in state reservoirs
Tribune News Service

Nangal, July 13
Water levels in reservoirs are shrinking as snow-fed rivers have got reduced to a trickle.

The water level in the Pong reservoir is 387.93 metre against last year’s level of 404.77 m. The water stored in the reservoir is 4 per cent of full reservoir level against 36 per cent last year. The inflow and outflow from the reservoir is 170.16 cubic m per second.

“Pong is mainly dependent on rains, while Bhakra is fed from the snow melting in its catchment areas,” said BBMB officials.

The Bhakra reservoir has registered 15 per cent of full reservoir level, while it was 56 per cent last year. The level of water in the Bhakra reservoir is 468.20 m against last year’s level of 494.24 m. Inflow is 1,047.33 cubic m per sec, while outflow is 784.61 cubic m per sec.

After a meeting of the partner states held in the last week of June, the BBMB had decided to cut down the share of water released to partner states. However, after request from Rajasthan, the BBMB is now releasing 3,000 cusecs of more water to meet with its requirements.

“Reducing the water share had significantly improved water level in the Bhakra reservoir by 10 to 15 feet in around 10 days. But now since Rajasthan is overdrawing water, condition is back to where it was earlier,” the officials added.

With scant rainfall registered so far, the hydel units’ power generation, too, has got affected. The power generation from Bhakra is around 197 lakh units daily and from Pong is 18.4 lakh units.

It’s the thermal units of the state that are trying to grapple with the power situation by producing around 555 lakh units daily. The power supply in the state was 1,544 lakh units yesterday against demand of 1,698 lakh units leaving a gap of 154 lakh units. The peak load demand restrictions in the state in peak hours were 750 MW and it was 800 MW during the off-peak hours after midnight.