Blessing in Disguise: Water level rises in Hub Dam after rainfall

KARACHI: The ongoing spell of rains in Sindh and parts of Balochistan has increased the water level in Hub Dam to 307 feet, citing officials ARY News reported on Wednesday.

The Managing Director of the Water Board has said that recent rainfall in the catchment area of the Hub Dam has increased the water graph in the reservoir to 307 ft, which is further increasing with the inflows from the catchment area.

Increasing water level in the dam will improve the water supply in District West and other areas of Karachi, which receive water from the reservoir.

The increasing water level will help to ensure water supply to the city for two years, the official said.

Karachi gets 100 gallon water daily from Hub Dam.

In a spell of rainfall in the catchment area of Hub Dam in Balochistan and Sindh in February this year, had increased the water level at the lake of the dam by 20 feet.

The catchment areas of Hub Dam is spread over hundreds of kilometres in Balochistan and Sindh.

Owing to the low supply from the dam, many areas in the western and central districts of the Karachi were facing acute water shortage.

A 30-kilometer-long canal with its designed capacity supplies around 100 million gallons of water daily (mgd) to Karachi.

The Hub Dam, located 56 km from Karachi with total capacity of 339 feet, is extended to 24,300 acres with gross storage capacity of 8,57,000 acre feet water. It is Pakistan’s third largest dam and an important source that meets water needs of the city.

The last time the dam reached its full capacity was in 2013, when the water level was enough to meet the citizen’s requirements for three years, water board sources.

The Hub Dam supplies 63% of its capacity to Karachi, which includes city’s District West, as well as North Karachi and New Karachi areas of District Central.

The remaining 37% of the water from the reservoir is supplied to Lasbela district of Balochistan and surrounding areas for irrigation purposes.