HARIPUR: A small dam built in Gudwalian, a village near Tarbela Dam, to irrigate over 40,000 acres of land in several neighbouring localities of four village councils, has failed to serve its purpose due to a technical fault, according to locals.

Talking to Dawn, they said that on the growing demands from the locals, the then PPP-ANP government had approved the small dam project in 2013 to boost agriculture for livelihood as the land is rich in fertility and has the potential to grow cash crops.

Despite huge spending, the reservoir failed to supply a single drop of water during the last five years, they complained.

The work order for the project, according to official documents, was issued in February 2014 and it was completed for Rs1.2 billion in 2020. The project was to irrigate 44,276 acres of land with a designed discharge of 14.75 cusecs through a 17,900-foot-long canal system. Its gross storage capacity was 1,751-acre feet.

But the farmers’ hopes were dashed when the reservoir developed a technical fault and reportedly failed to fill to the required storage capacity due to leakage. “It was not built on a perennial flow of water, and due to environmental impacts, the required quantity of water could not flow to the reservoir,” said an official of the irrigation department.

Irrigation dept official says dam unable to fill to capacity due to technical fault

The official, however, expressed the hope that the increased flow of rainwater into the reservoir could help fill it to capacity.

Zubair Khan, a senior engineer of the irrigation department, said the right side of the dam was leaking, with water flowing to about a 3km area near the Jabi Baka village.

“The project was in limestone areas that seldom become successful,” he said, holding the climatic impact responsible for decreased hydrological inflow across the province.

Speaking to Dawn, Senator Pir Sabir Shah, former chairman of Senate’s Standing Committee on Water Resources, said wrong planning and inefficiency of the department concerned caused loss of millions of rupees to the national kitty. “The project failed to serve the purpose,” he said, adding he had taken up the matter in Senate panel’s meeting and sent the final recommendations to the provincial government. However, he said he could not share with the media the recommendations of the committee.

Another official, requesting anonymity, blamed the ill monitoring, construction faults and poor compaction on climate change and the site selection criteria. “Hopefully, the project could be successful if a flood-like situation like the 2010 occurs again,” he said.

Liaqat Shah Mashwani, former Sir village council chairman, said the dam was unsuccessful because of its flawed structure. He said that during 2009 a team of experts visited the site and recommended that there should be an excavation up to 60 feet for tapping the perennial source of water from natural springs, but it was done by only six feet and was filled with the local stone and earth, which has blocked the inflow of water into the reservoir, and the water is still flowing beneath the dam downstream near the Baka village.

Published in Dawn, March 23th, 2026