Water level in the river had dropped to record low in December
The water level in the Jhelum, which had dropped to an unprecedented low, is back to normal following heavy snow spells in the past one month.
The river is flowing two or three feet above the zero point for the past fortnight after registering a record low water level in December.
On Friday, the water level in the river at Sangam in south Kashmir was recorded at two feet, officials of the Flood and Irrigation Department said.
The Jhelum is the main river of the Kashmir valley and travels a length of 150 miles from its source in south Kashmir, meandering through Srinagar to Baramulla in north Kashmir before heading towards Pakistan.
The river swelled with water during the past two weeks as the region received four major spells of heavy snowfall, ending one of the lengthiest dry spells in Kashmir.
The dry spell, which lasted four months from September to December, was one of the longest in the region in four decades. It had caused the water level in the Jhelum to fall below the gauge’s zero point at Sangam as the river ran alarming dry in December.
The river’s water level had touched a low of minus 0.55 feet — half a feet below the zero reading of the measuring gauge — at Sangam in south Kashmir on January 1. Officials said it was the lowest measure of the river’s water level since the Flood and Irrigation Department had begun maintaining the record in 1955.
The flood alarm level at Sangam, located in south Kashmir’s Anantnag district, is 18 feet, while the flood declaration level is 21 feet and the danger level is 23 feet.
