PESHAWA – The mega multipurpose hydropower project Mohmand Dam, aninitiative of the Federal Government, carries huge potential to meetPakistan’s energy and water requirements in terms of electricity generationand irrigation besides provision of clean drinking water facilities to theinhabitants of Peshawar.Mohmand dam will be constructed on River Swat about 48 kilometers fromPeshawar in Mohmand tribal district and its reservoir area extends upstreamto Mohmand and Bajaur districts in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.“The dam will generate about 800 megawatt electricity besides storagereservoir of about 1594 million cubic meters water,”officials’ sources in Wapda here told APP on Thursday.Its construction will help nationalpower policy achieve goal of meeting Pakistan’s energy needs in asustainable manner and ensuring generation of affordable electricity, whilehelping to reduce existing energy’s supply gap.“Construction of 213 meter highMohmand dam will alleviate risk of such flood damages to great extend infuture.The reservoir would also store river flows and minimize intensity of floodsdownstream, therefore, the reservoir would be a great source of flood’sprotection and will save soil from fertile land from erosion,” he said.Thousands of acres of land especiallyin northern districts of Khyber Pakthunkhwa including Charssadda and Mohmandtribal districts will be irrigated after construction of the dam besidesgive enormous boost to agriculture, horticulture, floriculture and otherskey sectors in the province.The project will lead to enhancethe agricultural capacity and production at downstream through raising twocanalsat Charsadda district.Moreover, the project will supply 13.32 million cubic meter water fromMohmand dam Reservoir to Peshawar city.PC-I of Mohmand dam hydropower project amounting to Rs. 309.556 billionincluding land acquisition and resettlement,was approval by ECNEC and ground breaking of the dam will soon beinaugurated.The project is scheduled to becompleted in five years and eight months and on completion will store about1.2 million acre feet (MAF) of water and generate 800 megawatts (MW) oflow-cost hydel electricity.It will alleviate poverty byproviding job opportunities to thousands of people and labourers besideslocalsin the project area and its annual benefits are estimated about Rs 51.6billion.Asked about land acquisition and resettlement, the official said a total of8675 acres land would be acquired for construction of requisiteinfrastructure at the dam site besides 56 kilometers long reservoir,irrigationnetwork and re-regulation pond area.Wapda has signed a formal agreement withtribal elders for acquiring land for the dam projects underthe supervision of district administration.The agreement pertaining to rates for acquiring land has also been endorsedby the Sub Committee on LandAcquisition and Resettlement of Mohmand Dam Project formed under theImplementation Committee on Dams.
This is why Pakistan needs multipurpose hydropower project Mohmand Dam
