Pakistan Water Crisis: Facts and Myths

[Riaz Haq]

Pakistan is believed to be in the midst of a water crisis that is said to pose an existential threat to the country. These assertions raise a whole series of questions on the source of the crisis and possible solutions to deal with it. The New Water Policy adopted in April 2018 is a good start but it needs a lot more focus and continuing investments.

Indus Water System. Courtesy: The Friday Times

Questions on Water Crisis: 

How severe is Pakistan's water crisis? Is India contributing to this crisis? How many million acre feet (MAF) of water flows in Pakistan? What are its sources? Glaciers? Rain? Groundwater? How much of it is stored in dams and other reservoirs? What is the trend of per capita water availability in Pakistan? What sectors are the biggest consumers of water in Pakistan? Why does agriculture consume over 95% of all available water? How can Pakistan produce "more crop per drop"? What are Pakistan's options in dealing with the water crisis? Build more dams? Recharge groundwater? Use improved irrigation techniques like sprinklers and drip irrigation? Would metering water at the consumers and charging based on actual use create incentives to be more efficient in water use?

Water Availability: 

Pakistan receives an average of 145 million acre feet (MAF) of water a year, according to the Indus River System Authority (IRSA) report. Water availability at various canal headworks is about 95 million acre feet (MAF).  About 50%-90% comes from the glacial melt while the rest comes from monsoon rains.  Additional 50 MAF of groundwater is extracted annually via tube wells.

Pakistan Water Availability. Source: Water Conference Presentation

The total per capita water availability is about 900 cubic meters per person, putting Pakistan in the water-stressed category.

India Factor: 

What is the impact of India's actions on water flow in Pakistan? Under the Indus Basin Water Treaty, India has the exclusive use of the water from two eastern rivers: Ravi and Sutlej. Pakistan has the right to use all of the water from the three western rivers: Chenab, Jhelum and Indus. However, India can build run of the river hydroelectric power plants with minimal water storage to generate electricity.

Currently, India is not using all of the water from the two eastern rivers. About 4.6 million acre feet (MAF) of water flows into Pakistan via Ravi and Sutlej. Water flow in Pakistan will be reduced if India decides to divert more water from Ravi and Sutlej for its own use.

Secondly, India can store water needed for run-of-the-river hydroelectric plants on the western rivers. When new hydroelectric projects are built on these rivers in India, Pakistan suffers from reduced water flows during the periods when these reservoirs are filled by India. This happened when Baglihar dam was filled by India as reported by Harvard Professor John Briscoe who was assigned by the World Bank to work on IWT compliance by both India and Pakistan.

Pakistan is also likely to suffer when India ensures its hydroelectric reservoirs are filled in periods of low water flow in the three western rivers.

Water Storage Capacity: 

Pakistan's water storage capacity in its various dams and lakes is about 15 million acre feet (MAF), about 10% of all water flow. It's just enough water to cover a little over a month  of water needed. There are several new dams in the works which will double Pakistan's water storage capacity when completed in the future.

Since 1970s, the only significant expansion in water storage capacity occurred on former President Musharraf's watch when Mangla Dam was raised 30 feet to increase its capacity by nearly 3 million acre feet (MAF). Musharraf increased water projects budget to Rs. 70 billion which was reduced to Rs. 51 billion by PPP government and further decreased to Rs. 36 billion by PMLN government.  It was only the very last PMLN budget passed by Shahid Khaqan Abbasi's outgoing government that increased water development allocation to Rs. 65 billion, a far cry from Rs. 70 billion during Musharraf years given the dramatic drop in the value of the Pakistani rupee.

Water Consumption: 

Domestic, business and industrial consumers use about 5 million acre feet while the rest is consumed by the agriculture sector to grow food. Just 5% improvement in irrigation efficiency can save Pakistan about 7.5 million acre feet , the same as the current storage capacity of the country's largest Tarbela dam.

Given the vast amount of water used to grow crops, there is a significant opportunity to save water and increase yields by  modernizing the farm sector.

National Water Policy:

Pakistan's Common Council of Interests (CCI) with the prime minister and the provincial chief ministers recently adopted a National Water Policy (NWP) in April 2018. It is designed to deal with “the looming shortage of water” which poses “a grave threat to (the country’s) food, energy and water security” and constitutes “an existential threat…”as well as “the commitment and intent” of the federal and provincial governments to make efforts “ to avert the water crisis”.

The NWP supports significant increases in the public sector investment for the water sector by the Federal Government from 3.7% of the development budget in 2017-18 to at least 10% in 2018-19 and 20% by 2030; the establishment of an apex body to approve legislation, policies and strategies for water resource development and management, supported by a multi- sectoral Steering Committee of officials at the working level; and the creation of a Groundwater Authority in Islamabad and provincial water authorities in each of the provinces.

More Crop Per Drop:

"More crop per drop" program will focus on improving water use efficiency by promoting drip and sprinkler irrigation in agriculture.

The Punjab government started this effort with the World Bank with $250 million investment.  The World Bank is now providing additional $130 million financing for the Punjab Irrigated Agriculture Productivity Improvement Program Phase-I.

The project is the Punjab Government's initiative called High-Efficiency Irrigation Systems (HEIS) to more than doubles the efficiency of water use. Under the project, drip irrigation systems have been installed on about 26,000 acres, and 5,000 laser leveling units have been provided. The additional financing will ensure completion of 120,000 acres with ponds in saline areas and for rainwater harvesting, and filtration systems for drinking water where possible, according to the World Bank.

Groundwater Depletion: 

 Pakistan, India, and the United States are responsible for two-thirds of the groundwater use globally,  according to a report by University College London researcher Carole Dalin.  Nearly half of this groundwater is used to grow wheat and rice crops for domestic consumption and exports.  This puts Pakistan among the world's largest exporters of its rapidly depleting groundwater.

Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resources is working with  United States' National Air and Space Administration (NASA) to monitor groundwater resources in the country.

Water Stress Satellite Map Source: NASA

NASA's water stress maps shows extreme water stress across most of Pakistan and northern, western and southern parts of India.

The US space agency uses Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) to measure earth's groundwater. GRACE’s pair of identical satellites, launched in 2002, map tiny variations in Earth's gravity. Since water has mass, it affects these measurements. Therefore, GRACE data can help scientists monitor where the water is and how it changes over time, according to NASA.

Aquifer Recharge:

Building large dams is only part of the solution to water stress in Pakistan. The other, more important part, is building structures to trap rain water for recharging aquifers across the country.

Typical Aquifer in Thar Desert

Pakistan's highly water stressed Punjab province is beginning recognize the need for replacing groundwater. Punjab Government is currently in the process of planning a project to recharge aquifers for groundwater management in the Province by developing the economical and sustainable technology and to recharge aquifer naturally and artificially at the available site across the Punjab. It has allocated Rs. 582.249 million to execute this project over four years.

Summary:

Pakistan is in the midst of a severe water crisis that could pose an existential threat if nothing is done to deal with it.  The total per capita water availability is about 900 cubic meters per person, putting the country in the water-stressed category. Agriculture sector uses about 95% of the available water. There are significant opportunities to achieve greater efficiency by using drop irrigation systems being introduced in Punjab. The New Water Policy is a good start but it requires continued attention with greater investments and focus to deal with all aspects of the crisis.

Here's a video discussion on the subject:

https://youtu.be/nrfF3ppBzpo

Related Links:

Haq's Musings

Groundwater Depletion in Pakistan

Water Scarce Pakistan

Cycles of Drought and Floods in Pakistan

Pakistan to Build Massive Dams

Dust Bowl in Thar Desert Region

Dasht River in Balochistan

Hindus in Pakistan

[Riaz Haq]

4.557 Million Acre Feet of #Water Storage Capacity Added In #Pakistan in Last 10 Years. 2.880 MAF in #Mangla Raising, 0.892 MAF Gomal Zam, 0.053 MAF Satpara, 0.089 MAF Darawat, 0.152 MAF Mirani, 0.014 MAF Sabakzai, Other #Dams: 0.278 MAF. 
https://www.urdupoint.com/en/pakistan/4557-maf-water-storage-capaci...

The government is actively working for development of small, medium and large water storage reservoirs in the country and added 4.557 million acre feet (MAF) storage capacity during last 10 years.

Giving the details, officials sources told APP here on Friday, that some 2.880 MAF was added through Mangla Raising dam, 0.892 MAF Gomal Zam dam, 0.053 MAF Satpara dam, 0.089 MAF Darawat dam, 0.152 MAF Mirani dam and 0.014 MAF Sabakzai dams.

Similarly, 0.278 MAF water storage capacity has also been added by constructing various small dams during said period, they said.

The projects included 0.087 MAF ISSO Barriers Sindh, 0.014 MAF Palai, Kundal, KP, 0.021 MAF 20 small dams, KP, 0.032 MAF reconstruction of Shadi Kaur dam, 0.039 MAF and 0.068 MAF 100 delay action dams (Balochistan) and 0.

068 MAF rehabilitation of Akra Kaur dam Balochistan.

They said the government has already acquired 85 per cent land for Diamer Basha dam which would store 6.4 MAF. A sum of Rs 2000 million has also been allocated for Mohmand dam which would store 0.676 MAF water.

The sources said a storage capacity of 4.965 MAF of existing reservoirs had been lost due to sedimentation. Studies showed that additional 0.75 MAF would be lost due to sedimentation by 2025, they said.

They said additional reservoirs were required for inter season and inter year transfer of water.

They said that per capita water availability in the Pakistan was 5,260 cubic meter per annum in 1951 which had been reduced to 908 cubic meters per annum in 2018 due to ever increasing trend of populations.

[Riaz Haq]

The Indus River System Authority (IRSA) Releases 287,100 Cusecs Water

https://www.urdupoint.com/en/pakistan/the-indus-river-system-author...

The Indus River System Authority (IRSA) Wednesday released 287,100 cusecs water from various rim stations with inflow of 314,200 cusecs.

According to the data released by IRSA, water level in the Indus River at Tarbela Dam was 1408.31 feet, which was 24.31 feet higher than its dead level of 1,386 feet.

Water inflow in the dam was recorded as 146,200 cusecs while outflow as 130,000 cusecs.

The water level in the Jhelum River at Mangla Dam was 1138.15 feet, which was 98.15 feet higher than its dead level of 1,040 feet whereas the inflow and outflow of water was recorded as 50,900 cusecs and 40,000 cusecs respectively.

The release of water at Kalabagh, Taunsa and Sukkur was recorded as 156,200, 152,900 and 40,500 cusecs respectively.

Similarly from the Kabul River, 63,500 cusecs of water was released at Nowshera and 22,800 cusecs from the Chenab River at Marala.

[Riaz Haq]

As water disappears, parched southern Pakistan farmers march north

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-pakistan-water-protests/as-water...

As shopkeeper Ali Akbar went to open his store last week along the main street of Thatta, in Pakistan’s Sindh province, he found himself wading through a sea of people who had blocked the road, causing an enormous traffic jam.

It wasn’t a political rally – the normal cause of such crowds. It was people without water.

“They were demanding the government declare a water emergency and resolve their woes on a war footing,” Akbar told the Thomson Reuters Foundation in a telephone call. “It was extremely hot, but they remained resolute.”

Over a week, the people had walked 140 km (85 miles) from the Indus delta region, desperate to find an answer to worsening water shortages and land losses to erosion in their home villages.

Zuhaib Ahmed Pirzada, a young environmental activist from Thatta, said an original 50 or so marchers from the area around Kharo Chan – where the delta meets the Arabian Sea - were joined by others as they marched north.

By the time the crowd reached Thatta, there were 1,500 marchers.

Tanzeela Qambrani, a legislator from Badin district, in southern Sindh province, said the region has seen the “slow death” of the delta for many years.

Water expert Simi Kamal, who works at the Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund and started a foundation focused on water and food security, said the spread of large-scale irrigation along the Indus River is partially to blame for less water reaching the delta.

But she said “mismanagement” of water, including wasteful flood irrigation and failure to leave enough water in systems to support nature, played a far bigger role.

“Together these have been catastrophic for the environment as well as the local population,” she said, predicting that a shifting climate would only make the problem worse.

LOWER FLOW
The Indus is a water lifeline for over 200 million Pakistanis, about 50 million of them near the river’s end in Sindh, according to the U.S.-Pakistan Center for Advanced Studies in Water and other agencies.


A report by environmental and development group Lead Pakistan said that as demands on the Indus’ water grow, the delta is receiving less than a third of the water it needs.

The flow is also less than what it is due under a 1991 water sharing accord among Sindh, Punjab, Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces, the report said.

Khalid Hyder Memon, a former irrigation department official in the Sindh provincial government, said he felt Punjab province, upstream, was “stealing” water that should be Sindh’s share.

He said repeated protests and requests over the last two years for a water audit by an independent body had not yet been acted on by the Indus River System Authority, which monitors water distribution and sharing.

“An audit would establish how much water there is in the system and how much is released to each province,” said Memon, who worked on irrigation issues for 37 years.



But Usman Tanveer, deputy commissioner of Thatta, said recent shortages of water in Sindh were in part the result of cool June temperatures in Gilgit-Baltistan’s Skardu district, with less snowmelt coming from the foothills of the Karakoram mountains.

“It takes between 17 to 25 days for the water from Skardu to reach us. The unprecedented and persistent low temperatures delayed snow melt and created havoc for us,” he explained.

Qambrani said the Sindh government needs to show “seriousness” in dealing with growing water threats as climate pressures become the new normal, and as sea level rise and less water and sediment flowing down the Indus erodes delta land.

[Riaz Haq]

Restore Pakistan’s rivers, handle floods, droughts and climate change
Managing river systems can help Pakistan manage floods, deal with droughts, create engines for a green economy, as well as help mitigate greenhouse gas emissions more effectively and more cheaply than big dams, argue Hassan Abbas and Asghar Hussain

https://www.thethirdpole.net/en/2019/07/12/restore-pakistans-rivers...

Management of riverine corridors and active flood plains is the key to managing large and frequent floods. What we need is to restore the capacities of riverine corridors to pass bigger floods, rehabilitate lost wetlands to absorb flood peaks, and regenerate forests in floodplains to break flood velocities and complement aquifer recharge. The estimated area of Pakistan’s riverine corridors and active floodplains is approximately 21,000 square kilometres as shown on the map. These areas are government-owned lands along 3,186 kilometres of the rivers with an average width of 6.6 kilometres. With proper management of wetlands and forests in this area, it could hold and recharge between 30 to 50 MAF of water during a flood.

No other engineering intervention can match this capacity, and the cost is much lower than building large dams. Additionally this would regenerate ecological services worth billions of dollars each year.

This approach will also help with the management of droughts. The riverbed and sand deposits within the areas shown on the map form freshwater aquifers of excellent quality. If we manage just the top 150 metres of these aquifers, they give us a storage potential of more than 380 MAF (in comparison the proposed Bhasha Dam is only 8 MAF, and the Mohmand dam less than 1 MAF). Compared to our current (wasteful) water demands of 104 MAF per year, this storage potential is enough to sustain us for more than 1,300 days. Our current storage through dams is only 30 days.

If we simultaneously start investing on both the water conveyance systems and on-farm practices to improve irrigation efficiency, current technologies can enable us to produce as much crops with less than 30 MAF. If we reach this potential, over 10-20 years, the aquifer storage of 380 MAF is enough to sustain us for 13 years.

In other words, managing aquifer recharge in the riverine corridor, combined with improved irrigation efficiencies, can literally make Pakistan secure in the event of the longest conceivable droughts.

[Riaz Haq]

Wapda secures ‘B-’ with stable outlook by rating agencies

https://www.dawn.com/news/1544852

The Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) has secured international credit rating of ‘B-’ with a stable outlook from international rating agencies, Fitch and Standard & Poor’s (S&P) -- a pre-requisite for green eurobond issuance that is a core point of the policy for foreign currency component of both Diamer Basha and Mohmand dam projects.

This was revealed in a letter written by the Wapda chairman to the federal water resources secretary on Friday.

Wapda had initiated the process to raise a portion of the requisite foreign currency financing from international market through issuance of green eurobond with a debut benchmark size of $500 million. The authority engaged three major credit rating agencies -- Fitch, S&P and Moody’s. JP Morgan and HBL provided financial advisory services for the process on pro-bono basis and meetings with these agencies were conducted on Feb 19 and 20 at Wapda House in Lahore.

“A great feat that Wapda has been equalised with the federal government on Long-Term Foreign Currency Issuer Default Rating of ‘B-’ with Stable Outlook by both Fitch and S&P Ratings. Moody’s are yet to communicate the outcome and we expect it to be in line with the other two agencies,” the letter stated.

During the meetings, the rating agencies were apprised of Wapda’s autonomous status, business model, financial profile and its importance in realising the government’s goal of minimising dependence on imported fuel for energy generation. This was followed by a rigorous exercise from credit quality perspective, including evaluation of financial position, financial forecasts, impact of socio-political factors, and the authority’s corporate governance and regulatory framework in order to gauge its strengths and quantify potential risks.

“The outcome of this credit rating exercise would greatly help to raise foreign financing at the best possible rates when Wapda approaches the international capital market for its Green Eurobond issuance. It will also bolster our credibility with a direct bearing on the pricing when we raise foreign financing from other avenues like Syndicate loans and Export Credit Agencies,” the letter added.

Wapda chief retired Lt General Muzammil Hussain told Dawn that the authority required $1.2 billion during the first two years of executing the Diamer Basha and Mohmand dam projects. “And now after getting this international rating… we will be able to secure foreign financing for the aforementioned mega projects. For this, we will be launching green eurobond, each of $500 million, in the international market soon. This way, the international donors will agree on fulfilment of the foreign currency component of these two projects,” he explained.

Pakistan had also recently secured the ‘B-’ rating with a stable outlook.

[Riaz Haq]

#Pakistan awards $5.8B contract for #dam construction to consortium of #Chinese and #Pakistani companies. #diamerbhashadam will store 6.4 million acre feet (MAF) of #water and produce 4,500 MW of clean #electricity.$1.03B for social programs around the dam http://v.aa.com.tr/1839628

Islamabad on Wednesday granted a contract worth 442 billion Pakistani rupees ($5.85 billion) to a consortium of Chinese and Pakistani companies for construction of a major dam to cope with the country's growing energy requirements.

The contract was signed at a ceremony in the capital Islamabad between the Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA), and a joint venture of Power China, and Frontier Works Organization – a subsidiary of Pakistan’s Army – for construction of a diversion system, main dam, and access bridge of Diamer-Basha dam, apart from a 21 megawatt hydropower project.

Amir Bashir Chaudhry, chief executive officer of the project, and Yang Jiandu of Power China signed the agreement on behalf of WAPDA and the joint venture respectively, according to a statement by the Water and Power Ministry.

WAPDA has already awarded a consultancy contract of the project to Diamer Basha Consultants Group (DBCG) worth 27.182 billion rupees ($168.8 million). The consultancy agreement includes construction design, construction supervision, and contract administration of the Diamer-Basha Dam project, the statement added.

The development came a day after Prime Minister Imran Khan announced the start of construction of the much-awaited dam in northern Pakistan.

The $14 billion dam, to be constructed on the River Indus in the northern Gilgit-Baltistan region, which borders China, is set to produce 4500MW of affordable electricity, said the statement.

"The 6.4 MAF [million acre foot] water storage capacity of the dam will reduce the current water shortage in the country of 12 MAF to 6.1 MAF," the statement said, adding that it will also add 35 years to the life of Tarbela Dam – one of the two major dams in Pakistan – by reducing sedimentation.

Some 78.5 billion rupees ($1.03 billion) will be spent on social development of the area around the dam, mainly on resettlement of the population.

"It will also be a major source of flood mitigation and save billions worth of damages caused by floods each year," the statement said.

Earlier, Asim Saleem Bajwa, special assistant to the prime minister on information, called the announcement "historic."

"Announcing to start construction of Diamer Bhasha dam today is a historic news for all generations of Pakistan, a huge stimulus for our economy, create 16,500 jobs, generate 4500 MW hydel power, and irrigate 1.2 million acre agriculture land," he tweeted on Monday.

[Riaz Haq]

Pakistan finally gives green light to controversial Indus dam in Kashmir

http://www.globalconstructionreview.com/news/pakistan-finally-gives...

A Chinese-Pakistani joint venture has been awarded a project to build a dam on the River Indus in the disputed Kashmir region between India and Pakistan.
When completed in 2028, the Diamer Bhasha dam, China’s first major civil engineering scheme in Kashmir, will have a 272-metre-high barrage, making it the tallest roller-compacted concrete dam in the world.

The project will be part of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), itself part of China’s Belt and Road Initiative.
It will have a generating capacity variously given as 4.8GW and 6GW, and will be situated in the Pakistan-administered region of Gilgit-Baltistan, about 320km from the Chinese border.

As well as power, the dam will create a 200 sq km reservoir, greatly increasing Pakistan’s water security.

According to the Nikkei Asian Review, the first phase of the dam, worth $2.8bn, has been awarded to a team made up of China’s Power Construction Corporation and the Pakistan Army’s Frontier Works Organisation, with 70% going to the Chinese company.

Muzammil Hussain, chairman of Pakistan’s Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda), announced the project at a press conference at the end of last week. He said the Pakistan government would provide 30% funding and “the rest will be arranged by the Wapda” – understood to be a reference to loans from China. Hussein put the total cost of the project at US$8.8bn, but he has previously given a figure of $14bn.

Previous attempts to build the dam on the Indus site have stumbled over the funding issue. In 2011, the US considered a loan of $12bn for the scheme, but withdrew. The Asian Development Bank approved a loan for the scheme but then withdrew its funding in 2016, and a later plan to crowdfund it failed to raise sufficient capital.

In 2016, the project was named as one of the projects in the China-Pakistan Economic corridor. However, in 2017, Pakistan backed out when the Chinese demanded 100% ownership of the completed asset.

India has raised objections to the project, partly on political and partly on engineering grounds.

The political protest is over India’s claim that the project legitimises Gilgit-Baltistan as part of Pakistan’s sovereign territory.

The engineering objection is based on the safety of such a tall roller-compacted dam in an earthquake zone.

Suleman Najib Khan, the convenor of the Water Resource Development Council, notes: “In the history of the world, no roller-compacted dam has ever been built of comparable height in such unforgiving conditions.

“In the event that the dam bursts at its proposed height of 272m during a routine seismic movement, 10 cubic kilometres of water, with the destructive power of a hydrogen bomb, will wipe out everything on the Indus all the way down to Sukkur.”

Roller-compacted dams use a blend of concrete in which fly ash is substituted for Portland cement, reducing the risk of thermal cracking during construction. The highest dam built so far using the method is the Gilgel Gibe III Dam in Ethiopia, at 250m.

[Riaz Haq]

The changing world means changing spending patterns and living habits at home as well as abroad. Pakistan is now the world’s fastest-growing retail market, partly thanks to the fact that disposable income has doubled since 2010. The number of retail stores, which is forecast to rise by 50 per cent between 2017 and 2021, is also being driven by the two-thirds of the populace under the age of thirty—and by the changing attitude to money among the young, who want to enjoy a good lifestyle now rather than save to enjoy one later.

Frankopan, Peter. The New Silk Roads (pp. 14-15). Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

Water is also a problem in South Asia, where India’s construction of the Kishanganga dam and hydroelectric plant has been a source of great concern for the government of Pakistan, who argue that these projects violate the treaty of 1960 that split the water resources of the Indus River between Pakistan and India. Anxieties about the dam, which was formally opened in May 2018, have been heightened by proposals to build as many as twelve hydroelectric plants on the River Kabul in Afghanistan—which would put further pressure on the resources of cities like Karachi, whose population is growing at more than 5 per cent per year and whose water board is only able to supply 50 per cent of its needs as it is.43 Not surprisingly, the Kishanganga

Frankopan, Peter. The New Silk Roads (p. 37). Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

dam has been referred to the International Court for Arbitration, and, perhaps equally unsurprisingly, the dispute has resulted in recriminations, soul-searching and suspicions of sabotage and conspiracy in the press in both India and Pakistan.44 Then there is the impact of climate change, which according to recent research will cause the Urumqi Glacier No. 1 to lose some 80 per cent of its ice volume in the next three decades—which will have obvious implications for Central Asia as well as for western China, where this and other glaciers play an important role in providing water for rivers but also as standby resources in times of drought.45

Frankopan, Peter. The New Silk Roads (p. 37). Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

[Riaz Haq]

Sindh CM Murad inaugurates Kalidas Dam in Nagarparkar

https://profit.pakistantoday.com.pk/2020/10/28/cm-murad-inaugurates...

Addressing the inauguration ceremony, Murad Ali Shah said, “The dam has a storage capacity up to 1,012.3 acre feet while its height is 13 feet. It was constructed at the catchment area of Karoonjhar Mountains that are feasible for small dams. The dam has been constructed at a cost of Rs333 million.”

Shah said that the provincial government has completed the construction of 23 small dams, while the plan for building more 26 dams has also been finalised.

“After the construction these dams, approximately 80,000 acres of land will be made fertile.”

The chief minister said that the people of Nagarparkar and its suburban villages will get clean drinking water after the construction of Kalidas Dam.

“The mountainous region of Karoonjhar is 400 square kilometres wide and it receives an average of 13-inch rain during the monsoon season which provides a total of 111,000 acre feet of water. Kalidas Dam will reduce the water scarcity in the Nagarparkar area,” he added.

[Riaz Haq]

Sindh CM Murad inaugurates Kalidas Dam in Nagarparkar

https://profit.pakistantoday.com.pk/2020/10/28/cm-murad-inaugurates...

Addressing the inauguration ceremony, Murad Ali Shah said, “The dam has a storage capacity up to 1,012.3 acre feet while its height is 13 feet. It was constructed at the catchment area of Karoonjhar Mountains that are feasible for small dams. The dam has been constructed at a cost of Rs333 million.”

Shah said that the provincial government has completed the construction of 23 small dams, while the plan for building more 26 dams has also been finalised.

“After the construction these dams, approximately 80,000 acres of land will be made fertile.”

The chief minister said that the people of Nagarparkar and its suburban villages will get clean drinking water after the construction of Kalidas Dam.

“The mountainous region of Karoonjhar is 400 square kilometres wide and it receives an average of 13-inch rain during the monsoon season which provides a total of 111,000 acre feet of water. Kalidas Dam will reduce the water scarcity in the Nagarparkar area,” he added.