Bhakra Beas Management Board (BBMB) on Wednesday claimed that it had all along been asking the district administration across Punjab to ensure the removal of encroachments and in the river beds for ensuring the natural flow of water.
The assertion came amidst the accusations against the BBMB for causing flooding in the downstream areas by releasing excess water in the Sutlej river which surpassed its capacity and overflowed at several places.
“We have all along been asking the DCs (Deputy Commissioners) to check encroachments in the river beds. It is a regular exercise,” said BBMB chairman Devendra Kumar Sharma, while refusing to further comment on the matter.
BBMB chairman’s assertion assumes significance as the encroachments in the river beds is sighted as one of the reasons or flood-like situations during the monsoons as it has, over the years, reduced the water carrying capacity of the rivers, especially Sutlej.
A senior BBMB official, who did not wish to be named, informed The Pioneer that over the period of time, people have encroached downstream areas of the river by constructing colonies, building farm houses, structures for their livestock, among other things which has resulted in reducing the water carrying capacity of the rivers.
“Take Sutlej, its water carrying capacity is about two lakh cusecs (cubic foot per second) of water. But because of encroachments, it has come down to one-third. It is now carrying around 50,000 to 60,000 cusecs of water,” said the BBMB official.
The official said that the BBMB, as a regular exercise, writes to the Deputy Commissioners concerned to clear the illegal structures and encroachments.
Maintaining that it was wrong to blame the BBMB for the flooding, BBMB chairman said that the Board worked in the “most proficient way” to save Punjab’s downstream areas from the scourge of floods by “managing the water levels”.
The 72-hour incessant rains from August 17 to 19 had resulted in the Sutlej river overflowing and wreaking havoc in around a dozen districts of Punjab, with Jalandhar, Ropar, and Ludhiana among the most affected. The standing crop on over one lakh acres of land has submerged under over four feet of water.
During this period, the water level in the dam raised by over seven feet from 1674.82 feet on August 17 to 1679.33 feet on August 18, and 1681.25 feet on August 19, against the maximum limit 1680 feet. However, the reservoir height is 1,690 feet. Till 2010, it could be filled up to the level of 1686 feet, but now the upper limit has been fixed at 1680 feet.
In these three days of heavy and continuous rains, the Bhakhra dam received around 4.87 lakh cusecs of water, with the outflows of 1.85 lakh cusecs in the same period.
The inflows on August 17 were 96,102 cusecs, while it were “unprecedented” 3.11 lakh cusecs on August 18, and 80,000 cusecs on August 19, against the outflows of 53,000 cusecs, 55,000 cusecs and 77,300 cusecs, respectively.
The maximum water level in Bhakra reservoir on Wednesday was recorded at 1679.5 feet. However, the BBMB, after reviewing the water level situation in the evening, decided to reduce the outflows to 18,500 cusecs from earlier 41,000 cusecs.
“The reduced inflows, recorded at around 45,000 cusecs and as per Indian Metrological Department (IMD) forecast of lesser rainfall in the coming weeks, the BBMB, after analysing the technical parameters, have decided to reduce the releases through spillways from 41,000 to 18,500 cusecs,” said the BBMB official.
Accordingly, the spillway gates opening would be lowered down to four feet from the existing eight feet from Wednesday (August 21) midnight.
Since morning, Bhakra has been receiving the inflows in the range of about 50,000-60,000 cusecs of water.
Patting its own back, the BBMB chairman said that despite more than three lakh cusecs of water coming into the Bhakra reservoir, which raised the level up to 1618.33 feet on the intervening night of August 17 and 18, “we resorted to the release of additional 20,000 cusecs only and absorbed the three lakh cusecs, which is huge, into the Bhakra only thus saving flooding in the downstream areas”.
BBMB head Sharma said that this three lakh cusecs water inflow was more than 1988 (when the state witnessed heavy floods) considering that inflows of 8,400 cusec into the river Satluj from the river Beas through Beas Satluj Link Project were stopped completely.
He said that the water level of 1681.33 feet resulted into high deflection in the Bhakra Dam which is “one of the highest” till date.
“Keeping in view the safety of the Bhakra dam, BBMB had to resort to controlled water release of 19,000 cusecs through the spillway from August 16 which was increased to about 41,000 cusecs at 4 pm on August 19 in addition to the releases for power generation through turbines. The same water release is still continuing, and we are monitoring the inflows into Bhakra reservoir continuously and accordingly release of water from the dam is being reviewed on hourly basis,” he said.
Sharma said that heavy rainfall in catchment downstream of Bhakra dam in Bilaspur and Una districts of Himachal Pradesh as well as rainfall in Punjab contributed to generation of more than two lakh cusec of run-off in Punjab areas.
He said that the BBMB’s target is to bring down the dam’s water level by at least another five feet, that is around 1675 feet, to handle any possibility of future flood event along with control of deflection of Bhakra Dam, as still more than one month of the current monsoon season is left with the official filling period till September 20.
