Heavy rain forecast on Oct 6-7 has govt on edge

The forecast of heavy rainfall in Punjab and the catchment areas of the Ravi and the Beas in the upper areas of Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh on October 6-7 has the Punjab Government on tenterhooks.

Wary, the state government has already started releasing excess water from the reservoirs of Ranjit Sagar dam into the Ravi, while continuing outflows from the Pong dam into the Beas.

With the state having suffered the worst-ever floods in recent history in August-September that devoured 59 human lives and thousands of livestock, damaged thousands of homes and destroyed crops on nearly 5 lakh acres of land, the prediction of the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) of heavy rainfall in the coming days has officials in the Water Resources Department on the edge.

Rainfall to the tune of 110 mm is predicted in the coming week in Punjab, about 120 mm in the Jammu region and an average of 16-180 mm in Himachal Pradesh.

The top brass of the state Water Resources Department, including chief engineers and technical experts, held a virtual meeting with top officials of the IMD today to discuss and understand the weather pattern and devise a strategy for flood control. Heavy to very heavy rainfall is predicted in Amritsar, Tarn Taran, Gurdaspur, Pathankot, Ropar, Jalandhar, Ludhiana, Moga, Mansa, Barnala and Bathinda on October 6-7, according to the IMD data shared with the state government. It is learnt that even top officials of the Bhakra Beas Management Board have started internal discussions to formulate their own strategy.

It is part of this strategy that the state government has started releasing more water from the reservoir of the Ranjit Sagar dam from this afternoon onwards so as to keep the water level in the dam much below the danger level, so that the increased inflows expected in the dam during the upcoming predicted heavy rainfall days (October 6-7) do not force them to suddenly release water in the rivers that could once again lead to floods in the downstream Punjab plains.

The water outflow from the Ranjit Sagar reservoir has been increased from 20,362 cusecs yesterday to 37,686 cusecs from 1 pm onwards today. It may be mentioned that the water level in this dam is 523.53 feet, which is still 4 feet below the danger mark. The officials are worried that there is a possibility of excess water flowing into the Ravi through the 22 rivulets that meander through the hills into the Ravi, in case of heavy rainfall.

Though the water level in the Pong dam was below the danger mark, the outflows of 17,171 cusecs would continue from the dam, said an official. The officials also predicted higher water levels in the Sutlej due to the heavy rainfall in the state.

Meanwhile, the Punjab Government has written to the Chief Engineer of the Irrigation and Water Resources Department of Haryana, informing him of heavy rainfall in the coming days and urging them to regulate the water outflow from the Kaushalya dam built on river Ghaggar so as to have enough space in the dam reservoir to store the excess water inflow expected during the coming week. This would prevent the Ghaggar river flooding the downstream areas that fall in Punjab.