KL Report
SRINAGAR
The water level at the Ram Munish Bagh station has touched a historic high of 25.20 ft (at 12:00 am) indicating lot more of water is getting into the city that lacks enough of space to mange it. The river has already breached at a couple of places in uptown worsening the situation at odd hours, especially in Mehjoornagar-Natipora belt.
Water level of Jhelum river is being measured at three place: Sangam in South Kashmir, R M Bagh in Central Kashmir and Asham in North Kashmir. Alarm bells go out when the levels reach 18 ft at Sangam, 17 at Ram Munshi Bagh and 14 ft at Asham. Any increase in this level is flood.
“It is increasing, gradually but surely,” an official of the Irrigation and Flood Control said. “Once it crossed 26 ft, the Dal lake will be inundated automatically and I think it will not take much of the time, given the increase in last few hours.” Given the gradual rise, Dal will automatically start getting additional water by 2 am, estimates suggest. The lake is currently filled to its capacity because of the discharge from Tel Bal nulla.
The situation at Sangam is more dangerous. The water at this level measuring centre is flowing much above the last point on the scale which is 34 ft. “We are not in a position to see the scale at all, it is under water” officials said. The last recorded level was 33.65 ft.
At Asham which is downstream Srinagar, the latest gauge position at 12 am was 16.41 ft.
As more water gets into the city and all its marshes filled to the brim, there is a strong possibility of the massive silt road triggering backflows. That can add to the crisis in which the city is placed right now.
So far the historic high level at the three spots have been 32.6 ft for Sangam in 1992, 22.6 ft for Ram Munshi Bagh in 1995 and 19.35 ft for Asham in 1996. The last point of the gauge scale at Ram Munishi Bagh is 26.25 ft.
