The North West Frontier Province (NWFP) has rejected construction of Munda and Kurram Tungi dams until the federal government revises their height levels acceptable to the province and the people, official sources told Business Recorder.
Interior Minister Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao and his son Sikandar Sherpao were present at the meeting to discuss Munda dam, while Provincial Co-ordination Minister Salim Saifullah Khan and his bother Humayun Saifullah, who is also Nazim Laki Marwat, pleaded their case for Kurram Tungi dam.
According to the map, the Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) has fixed 650 feet height for Munda, but NWFP insists that it should not be less than 703 feet. The height of Kurram Tungi dam has been proposed 295 feet by the consultants, but the provincial government is of the view that it should also be enhanced to 330-340 feet.
Sources said there were divergent views between the representatives of provincial government and the consultants over the just use of hydrological data of the province.
"We believe if the consultants may have used our hydrological data, it would have no problem in height," the sources quoted the provincial representatives as saying. On the other hand, consultants were of the view that they used the provincial hydrological data to fix the height.
Sources said, Water and Power Minister Liaquat Ali Jatoi, who was chairing the meeting, gave one week's time to both the provincial government and the consultants to sit together and finalise recommendations. "Technical and feasible suggestions of all stakeholders would be considered on the construction of mega water and power projects in NWFP", Jatoi assured the participants.
The minister also constituted a committee under the chairmanship of Member (Water) Wapda, comprising representatives of PPIB, NWFP government, and Nespak. It would look into the technical aspects of the projects, fix the height of the dams and other parameters to determine optimum level of storage, etc, and submit its report within two weeks to the ministry.
Earlier, matters regarding height of the Munda dam, storage capacity, area to be irrigated, and hydro-power to be generated from the dam were thoroughly deliberated upon in the meeting and the interior minister made a number of useful suggestions, says a press release.
The viewpoint of provincial government was also discussed in detail and it was decided that the dam should be multi-purpose like irrigation, flood mitigation and hydropower generation. According to the press release, progress on Kurram Tangi dam was also discussed and the provincial government presented its viewpoint on the project.
Salim Saifullah offered a number of useful suggestions to make the project more beneficial to the people of the area. He was of the view that completion of the dam would bring green revolution in NWFP especially in southern area of the province which would irrigate 0.362 MAF barren lands besides generating 83 MW electricity and help flood mitigation in the area.
He was of the view that construction of these dams is the need of the hour and we have to take bold and clear-cut decisions in this regard. Jatoi also directed early financial close of Munda dam, adding that time schedule for construction of mega water sector projects should be met without any delay.
On the request of NWFP government, Jatoi also directed to shift the offices of the Land Acquisition Collector of Wapda from Mardan to near the sites of Kurram Tangi and Munda dams.-PR