Pak's Punjab gears up for flood mitigation claiming India opened spillways to desilt dam

Pakistan's emergency services were on high alert on Friday after the Punjab province administration warned of a possible flood in Chenab river, claiming that India opened the spillway gates of the Salal Dam.

Punjab Emergency Services Department Secretary Rizwan Naseer said in a statement that the rescue services are on high alert due to the possible threat of increased water inflow from the Indian side between May 21 and 30.

Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) shared a letter from Indian officials with all relevant departments in Punjab province and directed to do the needful, Rescue 1122 spokesperson Farooq Ahmad said.

PDMA spokesperson Mazhar Hussain told PTI that it received direction in this regard from the Agriculture Department, which claims to have received the communication from the Indian authorities.

Deputy Commissioner of Sialkot district, Saba Asghar Ali, said: ''The water level in the Chenab may rise by two to three metres due to the opening of the spillway gates of the dam by India.'' A high alert has been issued for the Marala Barrage, near Sialkot, and adjacent areas, especially Bajwat, she said.

She said the district emergency control room has also been activated. She also directed all the departments concerned to ensure 24-hour monitoring of the river as well as restrict public movement on the banks of the Chenab and not allow them to take animals into the river bed. Chenab river is part of the Indus basin. A day after last year's April 22 Pahalgam terror attack that killed 26 people, India took a series of punitive measures against Pakistan that included putting the 1960 vintage Indus Water Treaty (IWT) in ''abeyance.''.

The IWT, brokered by the World Bank, has governed the distribution and use of the Indus river and its tributaries between India and Pakistan since 1960.

Under the IWT, Pakistan received the entire flows from the three western rivers, Chenab, Jhelum and Indus, while India had complete rights over the three eastern rivers, Sutlej, Beas and Ravi.

The 690 MW Salal power station is a run-of-the-river project on Chenab situated in the Riasi district of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir.

Salal was the first hydropower project constructed by India under the treaty and features a 130-metre-high dam. The 22-kilometre-long reservoir created by the Salal dam on the Chenab River has faced high sediment inflows due to fragile geological formations, steep and unstable slopes, intense monsoon rains and frequent seismic activity in the region.

Decades after key sediment-management facilities were rendered inoperable under the Indus Waters Treaty, the reservoir of the Salal power station suffered a dramatic loss of storage of up to 96 per cent, prompting NHPC to launch a silt management plan at the facility to ensure sustained operational efficiency.

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