ISLAMABAD, March 18: MNA from Balochistan Rauf Mengal has called upon the government to reduce the height of Mirani Dam by at least 10 feet in order to mitigate its adverse effects on the people in upstream and downstream areas.
In a statement, he acknowledged a number of benefits that would accrue from the dam which was being built on Dasht river at the confluence of two seasonal rivers of Keech district.
During the floods, 0.4 million cusecs of water, on an average, flowed into Arabian Sea which would be potentially conserved for productive use. In addition to the nearly 33,000 acres of fallow land that would be brought under irrigation, reservoir area would be utilized for rearing fish and underground water reserves be recharged over 10 to 15kms up and downstream of the dam.
The first feasibility report of the project, he recalled, was completed as long ago as 1956 but the actual work on it was started in 2001 and that too after the commencement of construction of Gwadar port.
The objective obviously was to provide water for the planned mega-city industrial complex and any succour for the people upstream was evidently only incidental.
With its cost estimated at Rs5 billion, the dam is said to have the capacity to store 150,000 acres feet of water with its only spillway at 80 feet. The total height of the dam is planned to be 127 feet.
The original project design had shown the reservoir as 6,000 acres and the fields which were at an elevation of 30 feet were depicted as being under war, while those at a depression of 30 feet as outside the reservoir area.
The local people fear that as a result of the dam, two union councils, Noodaz and Nasirabad, would be inundated. This is shown in the 1956 survey which showed the dam height as 80 feet instead of the 127 feet now planned.
Wapda functionaries, nevertheless, insist that only some parts of the union councils will be inundated forcing only a few people to migrate. Mr Mengal considered it strange that even after 33 months of work on the project no scientific survey had been undertaken to ascertain the exact extent of damage to earth brick houses and water logging and salinity.
The design of the spillway is another source of worry. There is no provision for a flood gate and the outlet will exist only in the form of the sole spillway with a very limited capacity.
As regards the villages downstream of the dam, the havoc in store for them was expected to be hardly less devastating. Due to an inadequate spillway, water would flow very slowly, thus terminating the flood irrigation of which the area over a 150- kilometre stretch on both banks of Dasht river is the principle beneficiary.
