'Hub dam can now daily supply 70Mn gallons of water to Karachi'

KARACHI: The recent spell of rainfall in the catchment area of Hub Dam in Balochistan and Sindh, has increased the water level at the lake of the dam by 20 feet, ARY News reported on Friday.

The irrigation department officials today said that the water level at the dam’s reservoir has reached to 298 feet, 20 feet above the level measured before the rain. The dam reservoir still receiving the inflow from the catchment area, officials said.

Heavy rainfall in the catchment area of the Hub Dam, especially in Lasbela and Khuzdar districts of Balochistan, have resulted in a considerable increase in the water level in the dam, which had reached to dead level due to lack of rains and years of drought in Balochistan and Sindh, officials said on Thursday.

The catchment areas of the Hub Dam is spread over thousands 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.

At the current water level in Hub dam, up to 70 million gallons of water per day can be supplied to Karachi for the next one year, officials said.

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

Lack of rainfall in the dam catchment area created drought-like situation, while a major portion of the dam’s reservoir, around 26 square kilometers, almost dried up.

The dam’s old structure and poor maintenance had resulted in leakages and breaches in the water body.

The recent rains in Balochistan and Sindh have raised the level of water in the Hub Dam, making it possible for the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board to resume the supply of water to the city.

According to the KWSB’s officials, the water board will start supplying water from the dam over the next few days. At the current level, up to 70 million gallons of water per day can be supplied to the city for the next one year, officials said.

Drought-like situation

The water in Hub Dam, located 56 km from Karachi, went down owing to the lack of run-off in recent months as most parts of the country were facing drought-like situation as last year’s monsoon was about a quarter below the normal.

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

The water level in the reservoir goes down due to scarce rainfall in the catchment area of Hub Dam having total capacity at 339 feet.

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 earlier said.

The Hub Dam supplies 63% of its capacity, which comes to 100 mgd, to Karachi’s District West, as well as North Karachi and New Karachi in District Central. The remaining 37% of the water is supplied to Lasbela district of Balochistan and surrounding areas for irrigation purposes.