Tribes insist on renaming the Munda Dam project in Mohmand Agency

Tribes insist on renaming the Munda Dam project in Mohmand Agency

The controversial Munda Dam has shot back into limelight yet again after the representatives of Swat revoked their long stand over the issue. KPK assembly representatives from Swat renewed their call for serious consultations regarding the issue and welcomed
the move of the Water and Power Development Authority WAPDA to include the concerns of the representatives who have insisted that the project should also be considerate of the mass flooding the river can cause and subsequently the height of the dam was raised
to cater for the concerns.

“We made the Water and Power Development Authority to raise the height of the dam to take the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s interest into account as flood mitigation is equally important side by side generating electricity,” said an irrigation department official.
He said that the Wapda had designed the project for hydropower generation.  Later, it agreed to accommodate Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s stand, making the Munda Dam project a multi-purpose initiative.

Munda Dam which will be built on River Swat, will provide irrigation to an extended area of 108,900 acres of the regions including  Charsadda, Nowshera, Mardan and Peshawar districts.

The $1.4-billion project will take approximately nine years to complete including two years of the preparation of the feasibility reports of the project. WAPDA has already given the contract for the feasibility preparation of the project to a private firm.

The four districts jointly house over 378,000 cultivable hectares and 556,887 reported hectares (suitable for cultivation), according to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Development Statistics-2010.

“An alternate housing would be provided to some 118 families that will be displaced due to the project’s execution,” said the official.

Munda Dam project was initially envisaged to produce electricity. To be built at the Munda Headworks in Mohmand Agency, the dam will create a reservoir, spanning 15,400 acres, good for storing 1.29 million acre feet water. It will be a huge 213-meter high
and 760-meter lengthy ‘concrete faced rock fill dam which will protect the cities of Nowshera and Charsadda from flash floods witnessed in the year 2010.

There are certain other controversial factors involved in the construction of the project as the tribal elders of the area are insisting that the name of the project should be changed to their liking.

“The federal government should make sure the project is executed without any hindrance and Mohmand tribesmen’s demand for renaming should be handled intelligently to avoid any complications,” said the official. “Whatever name they call it, we (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
government) don’t have an issue with it, but we don’t want it to become an issue that compromises our interest,” he further added. 

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Posted by Naveed A Bari on Feb 24 2012. Filed under Pakistan. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry