Groundbreaking of two small dams in North Waziristan performed

The NWFP Governor Lieutenant General Syed Iftikhar Hussain Shah (Retd) performed the earth breaking of two small dams in North Waziristan Agency.
Both the zoned earth fill dams would cost Rs 138.119 millions and would be completed in 20 months period.
The Governor, accompanied by his Secretary Sahibzada Saeed Ahmad and Agency Political Agent Dr Fakhr Alam, first visited the Marsi Khel dam site after attending the Parents Day ceremony at Cadet College Razmak on Saturday.
He was received at the helipad by the local tribal elders. Later he performed the ground breaking of the dam and inspected the site where he was given a briefing on the project.
The Governor was informed that the dam costing Rs 78.500 millions would have 75 ft. height and 1050 AF reservoir capacity with 13.6 sq.mile catchment area and 350 acres command area.
Its spillway discharge capacity is estimated to be 13600 cfs and discharge of canal 2 cusecs. Consultancy of the project has been performed by the Nespak.
Later the Governor visited Sheratala area of the Agency where he laid the foundation stone of Mir Kalam small dam, situated 17 km east of Miranshah, the headquarter of the Agency.
During the briefing, the Governor was told that the dam would cost Rs 59.619 and had 52 ft height with 1550 AF reservoir capacity, 22.7 sq mile catchment area and 375 acres command area. Its spillway discharge will be 14370 cfs and discharge of canal 2 cusecs.
Addressing the local tribal elders at both the sites, the Governor said that with the completion of these projects the area would see real development and prosperity by generating agriculture income to the tune of Rs 20 million annually, besides employment opportunities.
He said construction of another big dam in the Agency is also on the card and after getting approval from the federal government work on it would be taken into hand.
"We are planning to provide respectable employment opportunities to the tribesmen which could not be materialised without boosting Agriculture for which irrigational resources are the first prerequisite", he remarked.
The Governor said that such small dams would have double benefits; firstly it would helps raise the underground water table and secondly irrigate the barren land in the area.
He assured the elders that efforts would be made to curtail the completion period of both the projects to one year and pledge to make the financial resources available for its completion with in the time frame.
Referring to the development activities in the Agency the Governor said that Rs 460 million have been allocated for the Agency development programme in the current years Fata outlay, which is a huge amount as compared to the developmental budgets of the nearby districts.
The credit of the fund raising, he added goes to President General Pervez Musharraf who generously acceded to our request and raised the Fata ADP from one billion to four billions over the past three year's period.
"Now we are building the capacity to utilise the amount judiciously", he added.
The Governor also laid emphasis on promotion of education in the tribal area saying, "Islam also lays stress on attaining education with out gender disparity". He urged that religious seminaries should also include the modern educational subjects in their curricula because he added, "with out knowing physics, geography etc one cannot explore the universe".
Syed Iftikhar Hussain Shah also emphasised the need for maintaining peace and harmony in the area, saying "without peace the fruits of development could not reach the common man".
The Governor was determined that the terrorism will never succeed.
The government he continued is ready to offer every sacrifice for betterment of the people and security of the motherland. "We will never allow the terrorism to prosper at our soil any more", he concluded.