RAWALPINDI, Sept 1: The Punjab government has decided to build a small dam at Kot Fateh Khan in the Attock district to give a boost to the social and economic development of the rural population in Barani areas of the Potohar region.

Official sources told Dawn that the dam would be constructed near the village of Sohal across the Dotal Khas river, also named Sil River further downstream.

The dam will have two canals, one on the left bank and the other on the right that will irrigate a total command area of 5,000 acres or 2,024 hectares (ha).

The river originates in the hilly areas of the Potohar plateau in the Fatehjang tehsil and meets the Soan River, a tributary of the Indus River, at the border between Chakwal and Attock districts.

At the proposed dam site, the river has formed a deep and steep sloped valley in the otherwise undulating landscape of the Potohar plateau.

The reservoir and command area of the Kot Fateh Khan dam will be located in the Attock district while the beneficiary communities as well as affected people live in the villages of Makial, Sapial, Rattarian, Sohal, Thatti, Nur Ahmad Shah, Bakhwal and Lund in the Pindigheb tehsil.

The catchment area is located in Pindigheb and Fatehjang tehsils and downstream communities are settled in the Pindigheb tehsil.

The project will be implemented by the Punjab Irrigation and Power Department and the Small Dam Organisation.

According to details, the total catchment area is 490 square kilometres and includes the upstream Kanjoor Dam and reservoir.

Rainfall at the Fatehjang station is 743 millimetres per annum and at the dam site an estimated 700 millimetres. Given the annual sediment load of 1.32 acre feet per square mile, the impact of erosion on the dam and reservoir can be expected to be considerable.

A total of 68 households living in the villages of Makial, Sapial, Rattarian, Sohal, Thatti Nur Ahmad Shah, Bakhwal and Lund in the Pindigheb tehsil will be affected of which three will lose 10 per cent or more of their cultivable agricultural land.

However, none of these households are vulnerable. Their income is not generated from the affected land.