KOHAT: Executive engineer of irrigation department Abdul Sattar said here on Saturday that Tanda Dam would benefit an estimated 123,500 farmers after completion of its raising work with the cost of Rs2.5 billion to restore its storage capacity lost due to silting.

Talking to this correspondent on phone, he said that it would be raised to 40 metres and 12 feet from its present height. He said that the lake could store 78,400 acre-feet of water, its original capacity, when it was inaugurated by former president Ayub Khan in 1967.

The official said that the funds had been approved by the Asian Development Bank and released to the provincial government, which gave a go-ahead to the project in Dec 2021. He said the construction work had started and it would be completed by June 2024.

According to the ADB report, the capacity of Tanda Dam, constructed in 1967, had reduced from 96 million cubic metres to 61 million cubic metres due to sediment deposits, which resulted in the reduced irrigation distribution system (IDS) service area from 12,141 hectares to only 8,094 hectares.

The executive engineer said that the dam’s capacity had come down from 78,000 acre-feet to just 49,000 acre-feet, obstructing the water to reach the spillway due to siltation.

The sub-project would extend the IDS service area to 13,520 hectares and increase the agriculture production in the existing and extended irrigated areas.

The proposed modernisation included the raising of the height of the dam, remodeling or reconstruction of a spillway, an intake tower, a 260 metres long water tunnel, the main canal, etc.

The official said that the new dyke of Tanda Dam was being raised just behind the older one from the basement near the offices of the fisheries department to restore its storage capacity.

Published in Dawn, January 16th, 2022