Source: Dawn
Date: Aug 1, 2010
ISLAMABAD, Aug 1: An almost 110year-old record of river flow was broken when 1.034 million cusecs of water passed the Chashma barrage on Sunday afternoon.
The flood has played havoc with lives and property in upstream Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab.
An irrigation expert told Dawn that the highest flow recorded previously at the point was in 1901 when it reached about 900,000 cusecs. A large part of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had been affected at that time as well. The authorities do not have any dependable data for years before 1901.
“The biggest-ever flood in Pakistan’s history was recorded at about 4pm on Sunday when 1,034,000 cusecs crossed Chashma,” an official said. The flows then started to recede and fell to 967,000 cusecs by 8pm.
In 1976, the flows at Chashma had touched 750,000 cusecs.
The country’s highest flood-related human loss was 1,008 deaths recorded in 1992. Most of the losses were caused by the Jhelum and Chenab rivers in Azad Kashmir and Punjab.
“The loss of lives this season might have already breached the 1992 level,” an official said, referring to statements by different sources.
The official said the authorities in Sindh had been warned of an extraordinarily dangerous situation in areas adjoining Sukkur and Guddu barrages and their catchments, commonly known as the katcha region, because of rising flows.
He said the provincial government had been asked to remove people from the katcha areas of Sukkur and Guddu to avoid any “big loss”.
He said the Guddu barrage was currently in low flood with 255,000 cusecs and would experience medium flood on Monday with up to 400,000 cusecs.
View the link: http://epaper.dawn.com/ArticleText.aspx?article=02_08_2010_001_009
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