Mangla | Pakistan

MUZAFFARABAD: As many as 125 people, including women and children, were safely rescued from Mangla Dam on Thursday night after a sudden thunderstorm disrupted their return journey from Ramkot Fort, an official said on Friday. According to Mirpur SSP Khurram Iqbal, the group had travelled to Ramkot Fort for a day-long outing on a locally desi­gned floating transport platform. The platform, operated with the help of boats, has a capacity of around 100 passengers. Ramkot Fort is a 16th-century fortified structure featuring around 440 stairs to reach the top, offering panoramic views of Mangla Lake, which surrounds it on three sides. The group, comprising employees of a life insurance company and their families from Mirpur and adjoining districts, had taken nearly three hours to reach the historic site. They were returning around 8pm when a severe thunderstorm, accompanied by torrential rain and strong winds, struck the area. The SSP said the adverse weather caused the floating platform to lose stability and drif...

• The dam is holding 4.3MAF of water against its capacity of 7.3MAF • Below average inflows in Jhelum mean water in reservoir increases only a few inches each day LAHORE: Despite record rainfall and flooding in rivers, experts have warned of a 25 per cent water shortage in a few months due to a significant decline in Jehlum River’s inflows. The drop in inflows has also slowed the filling of the Mangla Dam, one of the country’s two biggest reservoirs. Inflows in the Jhelum River on Saturday dropped to 25,200 cusecs, 47 per cent less than its recorded average. On the corresponding day last year, the inflows were 39,700 cusecs. The last five-year average for the day was 47,900 cusecs and 44,200 cusecs for the last 10 years. Due to lesser inflows, water in the Mangla dam was only increasing a few inches each day. According to water experts, this could result in a 25pc water shortage in the coming Rabi season. From Thursday to Friday, the dam’s storage only increased from 1,200.65 feet to 1,201.20 feet, 41ft below...