Water in Himachal’s Pong dam rises, no threat downstream
By IANSThursday, September 23, 2010
SHIMLA - The water level in Himachal Pradesh’s Pong dam Thursday rose again marginally due to discharge of excess water from another dam upstream but the excess water would not be released further, an official said.
“The inflow this (Thursday) evening was around 18,000 cusecs, slightly high from the morning’s 14,500 cusecs. The excess water discharged from the Pandoh diversion dam would be easily withheld in the reservoir,” K.C. Rana of the Bhakra Beas Management Board (BBMB) told IANS over telephone.
He said the water was released from the Pandoh dam, located 112 km upstream, towards the Pong dam Wednesday night.
The Pandoh diversion dam is located on the Beas river in Mandi district. It diverts excess monsoon water towards the Pong dam. Otherwise, it diverts water towards the Satluj river which feeds the Gobind Sagar reservoir of the Bhakra dam.
“Now the discharge in the upstream Beas river has reduced due to less rain in its catchments Thursday. So the situation is comfortable for the time being,” he added.
The water level in the Pong dam was 1,393.06 feet Thursday evening and the dam can store water up to 1,395 ft.
Another BBMB official said: “We are maintaining balance between the inflow and outflow from the reservoir. It is right now getting 18,000 cusecs and the same is discharged through operation of turbines. So there will be no discharge of excess water.”
For the first time in 15 years, the spillways of the Pong dam were opened Sep 14 for three days as a precautionary measure as the water level touched 1,394.25 ft level. At that time, additional 15,000 cusecs were released.
The dam, located along the Punjab border, about 250 km from here, meets the irrigation requirements of Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan.
The excess water discharged from the dam creates more flood-like conditions mostly in areas located downstream in Punjab.
One of the largest man-made wetlands in northern India, the Pong dam reservoir is spread over an area of 41 sq. km with a maximum width of 19 km. It came into existence after the construction of a dam on the Beas river in 1975.
