[B]
Engr Fatehullah Khan
It is for the first time in the history of Pakistan that its President took great personal interest in building dams to develop land, water and power resources. The President is very keen to remove chronic shortage of water and to end the 50-year-old and bitter water dispute between the provinces. He, therefore, initiated the construction of medium size dams namely Gomal, Kurram,
Mirani, Subakzai and Hingol dams. The feasibility of these dams was established about 45 years ago but none cared to build them.
Similarly, the President has vowed to build not one mega dam but three mega dams to end the three decade old Kalabagh dam controversy, meet water requirements till 2025 and produce direly needed hydropower. No Government ever dared to do so but passed time by tricking the nation in spite of the paras 2, 4, 6, 12, & 14 (e) of the Water Accord that provides to build dams. No efforts were made to end the controversy till things reached the point of no return.
Kalabagh Dam became the country’s pivot of politics and was exploited by those out to protect their petty interests. It was a bone of contention and a matter of ego for the provinces that created an extremely dangerous situation that hindered progress and development on the water and power sector. Every Government was in a fix to build or not to build Kalabagh Dam. Indecisiveness prevailed even after the rejection of Kalabagh Dam by IRSA under the IRSA Act and para 6 of the Water Accord in 1996 on grounds of hydraulic infeasibility and short lifespan due to rapid silting of the reservoir on account of mid-level sluicing design. Moreover, Kalabagh with mid-level sluicing design will produce as low as 350 MW of power and not 3600 MW as wrongly claimed. Kalabagh due to its low power generation is supported by a 1000 MW of Thermal power plant attached to it. Nobody takes notice of these serious flaws. After the miserable failure of SCARPs (Salinity Control and Reclamation Projects) and NDP (National Drainage Programme), Kalabagh is yet another impending technical disaster if implemented.
President Musharraf is a courageous head of State having taken a decision and declared what others could not in 30 long years. He promised to build mega dams to solve the problem of water and power shortage.
What ever be the recommendation from any of the committees, one thing is absolutely crystal clear that Pakistan direly needs to build the 35-maf multipurpose Katzarah Dam. It is a unique dam that alone fulfils WAPDA’s Water requirement of 27.7 maf as envisaged in vision 2025 programme besides generating huge hydropower. Moreover, Katzarah is the only dam to justify and transform the controversial Thal flood canal as perennial canal. Similarly, Raine and Kachi 70 days flood canals like Thal canal will also become perennial. These three mega canal systems will become vital part of Katzarah Dam.
It may be noted that all the three dams namely Kalabagh, Basha and Akhori put together have an aggregate storage capacity of 16 maf only. They meet only half of the Vision 2025 requirements and that for a limited period ranging from 15 to 80 years in depleting order due to short life of these dams though Kalabagh and Ahkori are infeasible. Moreover, a single dam either Kalabagh or Basha will only serve as "Replacement storage" in lieu of storage lost due to silting in Tarbela and Mangla. Therefore, none of the three is a development dam. On the contrary, Katzarah Dam is an all-purpose dam storing water up to 35 maf and generating 15000 MW of power besides regulating river flow and controlling floods.
The 35-maf Katzarah Dam is the third largest reservoir dam in the world after
Aswan High Dam in Egypt and Three Gorges Dam in China, followed by the fourth dam in USA on Colorado River.
General Pervez Musharraf is the pioneer to have initiated the construction of five medium size dams, three mega canal systems of Thal, Kachi and Raine and is to declare shortly the construction of mega dams. Therefore, in recognition of his meritorious and courageous services to the nation in Water Resources Development, I proudly propose, as the discoverer of Katzarah Dam, to honour the
President by naming Katzarah Dam as "Pervez Musharraf Dam".
My sincere suggestion is in line with international practice of honouring the heads of state who initiate, support and approve for implementation such unique projects that bring economic revolution and prosperity. A few examples of world’s top mega dams are quoted that are named after the heads of state.
The Aswan High Dam, with a height of 1542 feet is the world’s largest and longest lake that is 310 miles long and 6 miles wide, is named as "Nasir Lake" after President Nasir of Egypt. Similarly, Boulder Dam on Colorado River in USA is named Hoover Dam after the name of President Hoover. Again, its huge lake is named as "Lake Mead", the name of an engineer who planned and built the dam.
The site for Katzarah Dam on the Indus is located about 18 Km downstream Skardu. It has a storage capacity up to 35 maf, power generation of about 15000 MW and 1000 years of lifespan due to nominal silt flow and excellent capacity-inflow ratio. Katzarah Dam cost-wise is the cheapest dam per maf of storage, per MW of power generation, per year of lifespan and per year of service value. It is a multi-purpose dam that can serve as carryover dam, development dam, replacement dam, inter-seasonal dam, flood control dam, the Indus flow regulation dam and poverty alleviation dam. Katzarah can irrigate 10 million areas of barren land by economical use of water on the Right Bank of the Indus through the proposed "All Pakistan Grand Canal" irrigating lands in the four provinces. Sindh and NWFP have supported this dam, where as Balochistan has not expressed its opinion but wants water for Kachi plain whose only source is Katzarah. WAPDA has also now agreed that dam site near Katzarah village is the best storage site for a dam on the Indus.
Regarding the availability of water for storage, there is a wrong and ridiculous concept that as surplus water is not available, therefore there is no need to build any dam. The fact is that the proposed multi-purpose Musharraf dam is direly needed for many purposes besides storing surplus water that is surely available. The above mega dam with a rare large size of its reservoir is primarily needed to regulate the highly erratic flow of the Indus as required by the preamble of IRSA Act. This is highly necessary to regulate and release the Kharif and Rabi crop water requirements as and when needed in proper doses. Besides this, the 35 maf mega dam is needed for the vital purpose of Water Management as storage dam is its basic component that is required for the efficient demand based canal irrigation system and for the efficient use of water through sprinklers and drip irrigation. Over and above, mega dam is direly needed to generate huge hydropower that is environment friendly. The Technical
Committee may, therefore, note that mega dams are direly needed for Water Management, river regulation, generation of power and flood control besides serving as carryover surplus water storage.
The new Prime Minister Mr Shaukat Aziz is requested to build the said dam if he really wants to revolutionise the economy. This unique dam will generate huge hydropower, develop new barren lands by irrigated agriculture in the four provinces, grow forests, improve environment, open the Indus valley in Northern
Areas for all kinds of development, create jobs, alleviate poverty and make Pakistan an economic leopard tiger Asia as envisioned.
The Prime Minister is requested to invite the World Bank consultants to advise him which dam to build first. WAPDA supported by Punjab is laying great emphasis on Kalabagh Dam or Akhori Dam. My suggestion is for Katzarah Dam that is also supported by Sindh, NWFP and Balochistan. In the best interest of the country, independent expert opinion is required to which all provinces would have no objection.
The writer is Former Chairman IRSA
fatehuk@hotmail.com
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