Water level in Ghaggar recedes

Sushil Manav

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, July 20

The water level has started receding in the Ghaggar, a seasonal river that has inundated hundreds of acres of agricultural land near Moonak in Punjab and Kaithal in Haryana and was also threatening to wreck havoc in Fatehabad and Sirsa districts also.

The water discharge in the Ghaggar at the Guhla Cheeka point in Kaithal district was measured at 39,953 cusecs at 1 pm today compared to 48,220 cusecs at 4 pm and 50,774 cusecs at 6 am on Friday, according to sources in the Haryana Irrigation and Water Resources department at Panchkula.

The water level (measured in feet) in the river has also come down from 22.9 feet at 4 pm and 23.7 feet yesterday to 20.2 feet at Guhla Cheeka today.

The danger mark for the Guhla Cheeka point is 24 feet and the maximum water discharge is 51,733 cusecs. The water from Tangri and Markanda rivers join the Ghaggar a little ahead of the Guhla Cheeka gauge point and hence the water level and its discharge at this level are considered important to forecast floods in downstream districts of Haryana and Punjab.

At the Khanuri gauge point in Sangrur district of Punjab, the water discharge has receded from 14,475 cusecs on Friday to 14,150 cusecs Saturday afternoon.

The water discharge at the Chandpur gauge point in Fatehabad district has also come down from 11,900 cusecs recorded at 4 pm on Friday to 11,700 cusecs at 1 pm today.

The water level at Chandpur has also come down from 5.7 feet recorded yesterday to 5.6 feet today.

The danger mark at Chandpur is at 6.5 feet.

In Sirsa district, the water discharge in the Ghaggar downstream of Ottu head was recorded at 13,800 cusecs today, which is much below the danger mark of 25,000 cusecs.

Originating from the Shivalik hills of Himachal Pradesh, the Ghaggar flows in a serpentine way from east to southwest though several districts of Punjab and Haryana to enter Rajasthan from where it travels onto Pakistan.