From motorways to dam constructions, the state frequently invokes the paradigm of development when it speaks of progress in Pakistan. However, while mega-projects may look like a panacea for everything from power cuts to water short ages, a closer look betrays a different picture. This correspondent visited Sadpara Dam in Gilgit-Baltistan’s Skardu Valley, and brought home a tale of development gone sour.

When General Pervez Musharraf first approved the construction of Sadpara Dam, the residents of Skardu seemed to let out a loud, collective sigh of relief. They had long been lobbying the Very Very Important Persons who would come through this breathtaking town valley. In their eyes, a dam embodied the promise of development and modern progress – irrigation, power, employment, homes – and a sort of panacea to the troubles they constantly seemed to face.

When Musharraf approved the project, it was not meant to cost more than Rs2.9 billion. Planned by the Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) estimated that the budgeted amount would be sufficient to build a residential colony, 17 megawatt generation plants, hydropower stations, drinking water supply lines with the capacity to provide three million gallons of purified drinking water and canals on the left and right banks of the dam, meant to irrigate surrounding farmland and help increase water storage capacity by excluding the older Shatung canal. So when the private company, Descon, launched work on the project, everyone thought the work would be wrapped up within budget and on time, by 2009.

Come 2013, and the dam is lying half-done, and causing more losses than bringing benefits. Meant to be completed by 2008 or at the latest by 2009, the two institutions behind the work – the executing authority, Wapda, and the construction company, Descon – the cost of constructing the dam has increased from Rs2.9 billion to Rs14 billion.

Two hydel stations – constructions that help generate power from water – were completed in 2007 but the third and fourth are still not finished. That means Wapda can't provide 17 megawatts of electricity, and that the people of Skardu continue to face acute electricity shortages – also in Skardu's cold winters.

Ongoing works on the left and right bank canals have also caused undeniable damage. It has been difficult to lay a pipeline from the main dam to the residential colonies, meaning that they are still non-functional. As for the farmland, the situation is far worse.

The original idea was to use water from the canal to cultivate 19000 acres of barren earth around and in Skardu, but because of the foot-dragging of the Central China Power Group (CCPG) – a sub-contractor in the project – it is as if the opposite has happened. Since 2003, thousands of agricultural farms, a hundred thousands of trees, and several orchards have dried up, and housing properties have been irrevocably damaged. There is talk of losses worth billions of rupees.

Though the state has had to accept its responsibility, by agreeing to compensate the farmers whose land has been damaged, the compensation amounts have been so meager, that they have been vastly under-funded as they have tried to ensure adequate compensation for their losses. Some affected people have yet to receive their compensation.

Residents say that the construction quality of the canals has been substandard, and that cracks have appeared at different parts of the canals. The removal of the Shatung canal, and the subsequent incompletion of the new canals, 19000 acres of lands remain barren. A famous and beautiful canal, the Hargisa canal which flows through Skardu city, has dried up over the course of the summer, and almost overflowed during the winter, making water management far more difficult for so many people.

What if you don’t intervene?

Experts say the interventions have been unnecessary, and have only caused damage to the natural beauty of Sadpara Lake, and Skardu Valley.

According to experts, the existing Shatung canal was sufficient to build Sadpara Dam – especially since water flowing through one of the plains – the Deosai plain – has more than enough untapped resources that could be diverted to benefit to the population.

Instead of using the existing resources, the engineers have tried to ensure that the dam only relied on snow water from the mountains. While, at present, the storing source of water in the dam is based on only snow melt water during the six months of the summer. The problem is that some winters, it does not snow, and that means the dam could end up practically empty in the summer – relying on the weather, say experts, is an unreliable way to move forward. Skardu residents have said there has been little reason to exclude the existing Shatung canal, and have asked for its role in the dam's water supply to be reinstated.

Unfortunately, their demands have fallen on deaf ears.

Rather than dealing with the issue, Wapda sources have said that the diversion project of the Shatung canal has been adjourned for the next three years. They say that the water storing requirement needs can be met during the next three years and that they plan to proceed in permanently removing the Shatung canal project from the dam project.

Already concerned

The people of Skardu were already concerned. The idea of an enormous dam of clay and stones just six kilometres away from the city, and at its head, seemed to be an ominous warning of things that have already come to pass, and things that may still take place in the future.

A delegation from Skardu Town — with Khwaja Mohammad Ali Khan, a notable figure in Skardu — at its helm expressed their reservation about the dam's unsustainability when the then Wapda Chairman, General Zulfiqar Ali, visited Skardu. Back then, General Ali told Khan that the earth that would be used to build the dam would be strong and powerful, and that there would be no threats of destruction from the dam to the people of Skardu.

His promises proved hollow when the water level started decreasing in March 2012 (the residents had to use the water to generate electricity in winter). Then, a ditch appeared in the main protective wall of the dam. The ditch was not unexpected – a large quantity of water had already started discharging from the bottom of the dam's protective wall thanks to a leakage that Wapda's engineers seemed to be taking lightly. According to the engineers, seepage was normal when you were building a dam. When the ditch appeared, they plugged it with the clays and stones they had used to build the dam, and, once again, started storing melted snow water the following summer of 2012–only to find that the leakage started again, from the exact spot where it was plugged. That was not even the worst–springs erupted down town. That is why Wapda could not store more than 44000 acre feet of water in the dam–despite the original 56000 acre feet storing capacity.

The continuous consumption of water for power generation over this winter of 2012 has meant that the dam's storage capacity has hit dead level. According to Wapda, the dam is only storing the equivalent of one month's water for drinking and irrigation.

Two weeks ago, several ditches or cracks measuring 10 feet wide and 12 feet deep appeared at different places of the main dam's protective wall sites. Soon after the cracks appeared, Wapda sent a report about the cracks to Pakistan's Engineering Services (PES). In response, the geo experts of PES advised Wapda to refill the ditches.

On Wednesday, giving a briefing to Syed Mehdi Shah, the chief minister of Gilgit-Baltistan, Wapda's local authorities admitted that the ditch appeared because of a depression which is now being refilled.

“A team of international dam experts said Sadpara dam was five times stronger as compared to some other dams in Pakistan,” the Wapda engineers told the chief minister. They also said there was no threat to the dam and that it was quite normal for ditches to appear in them.

“However a representative from an international organization with expertise in dams will be visiting here soon to inspect the safety situation of the dam,” they said.

Later, the chief minister advised Wapda engineers to accelerate the refilling process of the ditches. Despite all these assurance by Wapda engineers, the concern about the dam's safety persists in the minds of the people.

In a conversation with Dawn, Haji Fida Mohammad Nashad, a former deputy chief executive of Gilgit-Baltistan and a renowned social political leader expressed grave concern and dissatisfaction over the success and sustainability of the dam. He said Wapda had excluded the Shatung canal from the dam project – a major component of the dam – and minimised the length of the left and right bank canals resulting seepages at different points whenever the water is released. He argued that it was important to reinstate the Shatung canal diversion project.

“It is important to remember that cracks have appeared on the protective wall site–a point that proves the lack of quality control,” he said.

Mr Nashad also said that the authorities should conduct a high level inquiry into the matter and take strict action for the safety and sustainability of the dam. There was talk of an alarming threat, that would make the dam incapable of storing water at best, and cause it to destroy the surrounding area at worst.

Ashraf Sada, the general secretary of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) in Skardu said Sadpara Dam has failed to achieve its objectives so far. Many components of the project have not been completed, and those which have been completed fall far below standards. “So, Sadpara dam could pose an alarming threat to Skardu Town. It threatens to destroy this area, and the lives of the people who inhabit it,” says Sada.