Rawalpindi: Sustainable irrigation: Govt to build Rs 1.1bn Papin Dam

[Naveed Yaseen]

* Project expected to provide 90 cusecs of sustainable irrigation water and two cusecs of drinking water for adjoining villages
* Work on dam will be completed by 2012

By Aamir Yasin

RAWALPINDI: The federal government has planned to build a small dam at the cost of Rs 1.167 billion on Wadala Kas, a tributary of Soan River in Papin Village, District Rawalpindi.

Sources told Daily Times on Wednesday that the Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA) and the provincial government would execute the project and the federal government would fund the project.

Water supply: They said main objective of the project is to provide 90 cusecs of sustainable irrigation water supply through construction of “Concrete Gravity” dam having gross storage capacity of 64,200 acre feet (AF) of water to irrigate 18,000 acres of agricultural land by gravity and about 1,500 acres of land with lift irrigation. In addition it would also provide two cusecs of water for domestic use for the adjoining villages, they said.

“The work on the project will start soon which will be completed by 2012,” said the sources. They said with the construction of dam would resolve the issues of water scarcity, additional reservoirs, protection of the infrastructure from onslaught of floods and create employment opportunities in the area.

They said the construction of small dam for irrigation was a dire need of this area as the drought cycle was frequent and the only solution was to build dams to conserve the rain runoff for agriculture.

They said the land of Potohar plateau was broken and uneven and the average runoff was about 1.88 MAF where as only 0.22 MAF (12 percent) was tapped by construction of small dams. They said in Rawalpindi district two third of the total annual rain precipitated during the monsoon season while the remaining nine months were nearly dry.

They said the delayed monsoon and erratic winter rainfall, which was a common feature, made the crops very uncertain. On the other hand, they said, the topography of the hilly areas with steep ground slopes helped the rainwater to form numerous streams running at high velocities, which was eroding the fertile agricultural land.

Specifications: The proposed dam will be constructed on the River Soan near the Village Papin in Rawalpindi District. The project is expected to provide about 2 cusecs per day for drinking purposes. The maximum height of the dam will be 105 feet with 460 feet length. The ogee type spillway of 52,000 feet discharge capacity will be constructed. The total length of irrigation system network (Main canal and water courses) will be 52 km.

Spending: The sources said the government would spend Rs 384.828 million for main dam and spillway; Rs 7.273 million for outlet structure, Rs 241.543 million for irrigation channel, Rs 9.56 million for lining of water courses, Rs 9.56 million for inspection hut, Rs 11.601 million for approach road, Rs 0.05 million for plantation, Rs 2.81 million for crop compensation, Rs 390.282 million for the land acquisition, Rs 6.73 million for geological investigation, Rs 30 million for shifting of 132 KV power line, Rs 13.732 million for institutional support and Rs 20.598 million for the physical contingencies.

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