Bhakra Dam was 53.9% full on 20 August 2026 — 3,356 million cubic metres of live storage, about 118.5 TMC, in a reservoir whose gross capacity is 9,868 MCM. That's the Central Water Commission bulletin. The next day the Bhakra Beas Management Board told Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan to stop overdrawing. I should say the dam is still filling. It was 21.4% on 2 July. Last mid-August it was at 70%, and a week later they opened the floodgates. I think that gap is the story.
The live figure is on the Bhakra data page.
Key takeaways
- Bhakra is 53.9% full on 20 August 2026, up from 21.4% on 2 July. That's 12 points below its 66% August average and 16 points below 14 August 2025.
- Pong, on the Beas, is 61.9% — 3,814 MCM, about 134.7 TMC — against a 72% August average and 78.1% a year ago. Together the two BBMB storages hold 7,170 MCM, 1,994 MCM less than on 14 August 2025.
- The week to 20 August added 6.0 points at Bhakra and 8.3 at Pong. Bhakra's typical remaining fill from mid-August to late September, in the three years we have, is about 9 points. Most of that arrived in seven days.
- BBMB cautioned the three states on 21 August. Hindustan Times put peak inflow near 42,000 cusecs against more than 100,000 at this point last year, with withdrawals around 39,000. Almost no net gain, if those numbers hold.
- On 16 August 2024 Bhakra was 54%, then 67% by late September. In 2025 it was already 70% by mid-August and 90% on 5 September. This August looks like 2024.
- Ranjit Sagar (Thein), on the Ravi in Punjab, is 58.6%, which is its 58% August average.
- BBMB sends water and power to Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, Delhi and Chandigarh. A flood-gate opening is a different act: last August it put extra Sutlej water into Indian Punjab, and the peak still travelled into Pakistani Punjab. India has exclusive use of this river under the 1960 treaty. The river still crosses.
Last year they opened the floodgates
On 19 August 2025 BBMB opened Bhakra after heavy Sutlej inflows. Punjab flooded into the second week of September, and the reservoir still reached its 1,680-foot full-reservoir level on 5 September. This year's 20 August bulletin puts live storage 1,002 MCM below that mid-August 2025 reading.
BBMB chairman Manoj Tripathi told Hindustan Times the filling season runs to 20 September. After that they start drawing it down. He said the water would ideally be near 1,660 feet at this stage; on 24 August the paper had Gobind Sagar at 1,634 feet, 46 feet short of full. We don't carry elevation. Our series is the CWC live-storage percentage, which is the one that compares across years. The two instruments are looking at the same lake.
Who this water is for, and who a release hits
BBMB regulates water and power from Bhakra–Nangal and the Beas projects to Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, Delhi and Chandigarh. That's the board's own description of the job. The irrigation canals are the everyday use: wheat and paddy in Punjab and Haryana, the dry districts of northern Rajasthan. Delhi and Chandigarh take a share for drinking water and power. Himachal hosts the dams and takes power from them. When partner states draw 39,000 cusecs, they are taking that system down. A cusec is a cubic foot per second — a small unit until you run it for weeks.
A flood-gate opening is a different decision. On 19 August 2025, according to The Tribune, BBMB released about 45,000 cusecs: 22,000 into the Sutlej itself and 23,000 through the Nangal Hydel Canal, which rejoins the river near Kiratpur Sahib. They opened the gates in three hourly steps because a sudden wall of water is what floods the Bela and Mand — the riverbed settlements along the Sutlej. The Indian Express had alerts that day in Rupnagar, Ludhiana, Jalandhar, Kapurthala and Tarn Taran. The 1988 flood, when the gates went to 20 feet, is still the memory they operate against.
I think that risk is lower this August. The dam is 46 feet short of 1,680. There is room to absorb a Himachal pulse without spilling. I don't know if a late dump still forces the gates — last week's 6-point fill shows how fast this catchment can move — but they are not where they were on 19 August 2025, three feet above the rule curve. The live risk is the other desembalse: canal withdrawals before 20 September, which is what BBMB asked the states to cut.
The Sutlej does not end in India. Under the 1960 Indus Waters Treaty, India has exclusive use of the three eastern rivers — the Sutlej, the Beas and the Ravi. Pakistan has the three western ones: the Indus, the Jhelum and the Chenab. That's why the big Pakistani storages we track, Tarbela and Mangla, sit on a different set of rivers. Exclusive use splits the basin on paper. The Sutlej still flows into Pakistan after Indian use.
A Bhakra at 54% does not empty Tarbela. Pakistan is not a BBMB partner, and it does not draw this irrigation storage. What can still arrive is a flood peak. After last year's releases and the monsoon, Pakistan put alerts on the Sutlej in its own Punjab. On 24 August 2025 India sent flood warnings through diplomatic channels; Dawn reported that, and the Pakistani foreign office confirmed it. The stored irrigation water stays with the Indian states; the extra, when they have to let it go, still travels.
The week that used up most of the remaining fill
CWC live-storage percentage, from the monsoon floor:
| Bulletin |
2 Jul |
9 Jul |
16 Jul |
23 Jul |
30 Jul |
6 Aug |
13 Aug |
20 Aug |
| Bhakra |
21.4% |
25.1% |
29.9% |
32.9% |
37.3% |
42.7% |
47.8% |
53.9% |
| Pong |
25.6% |
26.7% |
28.8% |
31.8% |
40.4% |
47.0% |
53.6% |
61.9% |
Bhakra has added 32.5 points since 2 July. The 6.0-point week to 20 August was its strongest of the monsoon. Pong's 8.3-point week was stronger. The caution is about what happens after a week like that, when inflows and withdrawals meet.
August is when these dams are supposed to be filling, so the useful comparison is the same week in earlier years:
|
~20 Aug 2023 |
~20 Aug 2024 |
~20 Aug 2025 |
20 Aug 2026 |
August average |
| Bhakra |
86% (24 Aug) |
57% (22 Aug) |
80.5% (26 Aug) |
53.9% |
66% |
| Pong |
— |
— |
87.1% (26 Aug) |
61.9% |
72% |
Pong's CWC series on this site begins in 2025, so it has no 2023 or 2024 row. Bhakra does. In 2024 the dam went from 57% in late August to 67% by 26 September. In 2025 it went from 70% in mid-August to 90% by 5 September. Bhakra's September average is 80%. Pong's is 97%. On a 2024 remainder, that hole doesn't close.
We ran a version of this arithmetic in the post-monsoon window piece, on the 13 August bulletin. Bhakra still typically added about 9 points through late September, and still finished more than 20 points short of its September climatology. The 20 August jump used most of that 9. If the next four bulletins look like 2024, the number that stays is the mid-60s. If they look like 2025, it doesn't. BBMB's 21 August note is a bet on the first of those. I believe them. The 42,000-versus-39,000 cusec arithmetic is the same bet, in a different unit.
Capacity in TMC
Indian water reporting uses TMC — one thousand million cubic feet, equal to 28.3168 million cubic metres. Punjab talks in TMC the way this site talks in MCM. Gross capacity below is from our dam pages. Fill is the CWC live-storage percentage: live storage against live capacity. Gross includes the water sitting below the intakes. That's why 53.9% and 118.5 TMC don't line up against 9,868 MCM if you multiply them. They're answering different questions.
The pair is 70.4 TMC lighter than on 14 August 2025 (323.6 TMC of live storage then, 253.2 now). That's the volume the three states are being asked to protect for the dry season.
The Ravi dam is fine
Ranjit Sagar sits on the Ravi in Punjab. PSPCL runs it, not BBMB. It is 58.6% against a 58% August average, having climbed from 31.7% on 2 July. Last 14 August it was 69.5%. On 16 August 2024 it was 26%. The Sutlej and the Beas can have a thin monsoon while the Ravi doesn't. That's what 58.6% is saying.
Himachal Pradesh on this site is essentially these two BBMB dams plus the small Kol Dam downstream on the Sutlej. Kol, 89 MCM gross, is 51.5% against a 37% August average. It's a balancing pond. The number that feeds Punjab's canals is Bhakra and Pong.
The India August edition had the country at 51.3% on 13 August. Bhakra is now a little ahead of that national figure, and still behind its own year.
There's about a month left
Four CWC bulletins, at most, before 20 September. I don't know whether Bhakra keeps the 6-point weeks, or whether 42,000 in and 39,000 out freeze it in the mid-50s. Pong is closer to its own August average, and in 2025 it went from 78% to 99% between mid-August and mid-September. We only have that one prior monsoon for it. I also don't know whether the partner states actually cut the 39,000 cusecs.
I do think this looks like 2024, and that the remaining month is what matters.
The percentages and volumes are from the Central Water Commission's weekly bulletin, which we mirror. How patchy India's public water data is overall is why the country scores where it does on the Reservoir Transparency Index. The method is in How we get our data: India. The 21 August caution and the cusec figures are from Hindustan Times, 25 August 2026. The flood-gate volumes are from The Tribune; the 2025 cross-border warnings from Dawn. Follow the two dams between bulletins on the Bhakra and Pong pages, the state on the Himachal Pradesh reservoir levels page, and the Pakistani storages on the Pakistan page.
