Punjab objects to release of water from Bhakra; BBMB defers release by 3 days

On Wednesday, during a meeting at the BBMB headquarters, the state government raised a strong objection to the board’s plan of releasing water 20,000 cusecs. The government stated that the rivers were already flowing above and over the danger marks and any further release of water will only threaten life, property and livestock further. In places like Lohian, the flood situation was already unrelenting due to the Sutlej, it was highlighted.

Krishan Kumar, Principal Secretary (irrigation) later said that heeding to the state’s objection the BBMB decided that no water would be released for the next three days. The BBMB had informed the Punjab government on Tuesday that the present release from Bhakra dam was 19,000 cusecs and keeping in view the high inflows, they had decided to release 16,000 cusecs of water extra. Therefore, the total releases was to be 35,000 cusecs from 10 am onwards on Thursday. It had said that the water would have to be released from Nangal Dam in Sutlej river from 10 am. Initially around 20,000 cusecs of water would be released, with the flow being increased gradually.

The Punjab government’s stand on water release was inline with Delhi’s AAP government’s stand which too had objected to high levels of water in the Yamuna.

Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday wrote to Union Home Minister, Amit Shah, on the rising water level in Yamuna river, seeking his intervention in the release of water from the Hathinikund barrage in Haryana. Kejriwal said that the water level in Yamuna is not increasing due to rain but because of the water released from the Hathinikund barrage.

The water level of Yamuna reached 207.66 meters in Delhi at 3 pm today, much higher than the danger mark and is likely to cross 207.72 metres by midnight, Kejriwal had said in the letter that the highest level that the Yamuna has ever flown at was recorded in 1978 at 207.49 metres, when the national capital witnessed a major flood situation.

“According to the estimate of the Central Water Commission, the level of Yamuna will reach 207.72 meters tonight, which is very worrying,” the Kejriwal said.

“It has not rained in Delhi for the last three days. The water level in the Yamuna in Delhi is not increasing due to the rains in Delhi, but due to the water release from the Hathinikund barrage located in Haryana,” he added, requesting the Home Minister to limit the speed of the release of water from the Hathinikund barrage “so that the level of Yamuna in Delhi does not rise further.”

Helped limit chaos in Punjab, Haryana: BBMB

The Bhakra Beas Management Board on Wednesday said that efforts made by it had helped significantly reduce the fury of floods in the states of Punjab and Haryana.

In a statement issued by Nand Lal Sharma, chairman of BBMB, on Wednesday, said that the water level in Bhakra Dam was at 1628.72 feet and the water level in Pong Dam was 1363.96 feet. The full capacity of the reservoirs was 1,680 feet and 1,390 feet, respectively.

He said during the past four days, torrential rains caused lot of devastation in Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pardesh. However, BBMB had successfully absorbed all the flood water that originated in the Sutlej and Beas rivers in the Bhakra and Pong dams respectively. In Bhakra dam, a staggering 4,45,037 cusec days (1088 million cubic meters) of water was absorbed and in Pong dam about 6,25,554 cusec days (1530 million cubic meters) of water was absorbed. This helped further flow of floodwaters downstream.