ISLAMABAD, Oct 30: Fourteen years after the country faced its worst man-made disaster, the Water and Power Development Authority has now admitted that its operational and engineering faults were behind the outburst of floodwater from the Mangla Dam that killed over 500 people, including dozens of army personnel.
In 1992, Wapda had opened the spillways of the dam in an emergency without informing villagers and the army garrisons lying just below the dam. The floodwater had played havoc in Jhelum, Serai Alamgir and Mirpur.
The authority has, however, refused to pay compensation to affected families fearing that it would open the Pandora’s Box of its inefficiency in similar instances.
Monday was a hard day for Wapda’s high-ups to face a sub-committee of the Public Accounts Committee of the National Assembly which met here at the Parliament House.
A special study report of the audit department on operation of the Mangla Dam during the 1992 floods, which was presented before the PAC, revealed numerous lapses on part of Wapda, which caused huge losses to human lives and infrastructure.
The report said Wapda rose up the dam’s conservation level by two feet beyond the prescribed level without consulting any technical experts. The losses of lives and property could have been averted had Wapda released excess water on time, it added.
An official of Wapda initially moved to challenge findings of the report, but later admitted the faults when the convener of the PAC sub-committee, MNA Riaz Fatyana, threatened to conduct an inquiry into the incident by the armed forces in case he insisted on proving the authority as clean.
Mr Fatyana suggested that heirs of those who had lost their lives in the tragedy should be paid compensation.
But, water and power secretary Ishfaq Mehmood differed with the suggestion and said it would not be possible for the authority to compensate the affected people.
“If we compensate Mangla-affected families, several other victims of similar tragedies will also demand similar treatment,” he argued.
An official of the audit department backed the secretary and said since many families had been completely wiped out by the deadly flood, Wapda would only receive false compensation claims.
The PAC directed Wapda to submit a report of an inquiry it had conducted into the tragedy earlier.
Mr Mehmood argued that the inquiry had found that Wapda was not the sole agency responsible for the incident. The metrological department was another guilty party, he added.
LOADSHEDDING: The meeting was told that the government had prepared a plan to avoid loadshedding during the next summer.
Under the proposed plan, 135 transmission transformers of 172kv will be replaced and grid stations which are not functioning properly will be upgraded.
In response to Mr Mehmood’s argument that the increased consumers’ demand was causing loadshedding, the PAC observed that the lack of capacity building on part of Wapda and its inability to judge the ratio of demand for power was were the reasons behind the problem.
The PAC observed that Wapda was a burden on the country as it sucked out billion of rupees from the national economy every year.
Mr Fatyana said lack of internal accountability in Wapda was the main reason for the eroding image of the authority. He expressed his dissatisfaction over the behaviour of Wapda officials with people.
Examining reports of the Ministry of Water and Power for 1995-96, the committee took note of some financial and administrative irregularities and emphasised that these should be addressed effectively. About the reported wasteful expenditure of Rs19.384million, it observed that Wapda should improve its internal accountability system.
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