LAHORE, Sept 9: Water started depleting in major dams on Sunday in the wake of a decreasing combined rivers’ flow and increasing requirement for irrigation.

Official sources said the Tarbela dam level dropped by 1.4 feet when 27,200 cusecs water was released to meet the irrigation needs. The stored water dipped down from 7.3 million acre feet to 7.2MAF. The water level was 1550.6 feet as against 1552 feet a day earlier.

The Mangla Lake level came down as 3,300 cusecs additional water was released; the inflow was recorded at 19,700 cusecs and outflow at 23,000 cusecs. On Monday, the dam stands at 1205.8 feet against 1206 feet on Sunday.

The combined rivers’ flow was reduced to about half of the country’s requirement at 162,450 cusecs. The country needs some 300,000 cusecs to meet its daily requirements. The Indus flow was recorded at 86,900 cusecs against over 300,000 cusecs last week.

The Chenab also came down drastically from around 100,000 cusecs to 35,450 cusecs; Kabul passed 20,400 cusecs while Jhelum carried only 19,700 cusecs at Mangla.

The Jinnah Barrage had an inflow of 154,900 cusecs and an outflow of 146,900 cusecs; Chashma 100,800 and 151,100 cusecs, Taunsa 163,500 and 135,200 cusecs, Guddu 225,300 and 194,400 cusecs, Sukkur 208,000 and 151,000 cusecs, and Kotri 83,000 and 48,200 cusecs.

Unless another spell of heavy rain hits the catchment areas of the two dams, as has been predicted by the meteorological department, the country may be in for a big trouble for the coming Rabi season. But the irrigation departments of both Sindh and Punjab do not want to take chance of conserving water for Rabi at the cost of their standing crops.