PESHAWAR: Water started flowing in the Tanda Dam canals today [July 17], marking the completion of the Rs 6.68 crore project designed to irrigate 32,000 acres of virgin land in Kohat.

The water was released to test the canal system and the local cultivators would be able to use it only during the Rabi season as they have not yet dug channels to utilise it.

The WAPDA Chief Engineer of Projects, Northern Region, Mr H.K. Bangesh, told local journalists that the project would be handed over to the regional Irrigation Department after its formal inauguration in October next.

The entire project was designed by Pakistani engineers and has entirely been completed from local resources.

The water reservoir has filled up to half of its capacity, but the engineers are confident that it would be full by the end of the monsoon season.

The project has its own special features. A barrage has been constructed on Kohat Toi from where the surplus water is taken through a tunnel to a plain surrounded by three hills. By constructing a dam on the fourth side a reservoir has been created which would store all the flood waters of the river.

The reservoir has a capacity to store 65,000 acre feet of water which would help in maintaining a perennial supply of 260 cusecs of water for irrigation purposes.

The project was inaugurated by President Ayub Khan in 1962. Its completion was delayed due to the Indian aggression.

[Meanwhile, as reported by our correspondent in London,] the Indian Army and Police have sealed off the borders with East Pakistan and Nepal, a report from Delhi in today’s [July 17] “Daily Telegraph” stated, “to seal the escape routes for pro-Chinese Communist leaders of the Naxalbari revolt”. The report stated that “at least two leaders crossed into east Nepal after Thursday night’s police offensive”. One “rebel” was killed and 365 arrested.

“The Daily Telegraph” report added “police have extreme difficulty in controlling movements in the thick vegetation on the hills.Nepalese Communists are said to be distributing anti-Indian propaganda in the border towns of Jhapa and Bhadpur”.

Published in Dawn, July 18th, 2017