The under-construction Darawat Dam, located in Thatta and Jamshoro districts of Sindh province, will be completed by the year end while the irrigation system of the project is scheduled to be completed in June 2013.
The Darawat Dam, being constructed across the Nai Baran River some 70 kilometres west of Hyderabad, is a component of WAPDA's plan to construct small and medium-sized dams in addition to its mega projects in water and hydropower sectors, said a Wapda spokesman here on Sunday.
He said that President Asif Ali Zardari had directed the Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA) to construct a number of small and medium-sized dams in the four provinces and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) for the socio-economic development of people of remote areas.
The projects are being taken up in the areas, which cannot be irrigated through Indus Basin Irrigation System with a view to optimal utilisation of water and land resources available in the country, he added.
The spokesman said that the Darawat Dam project would cost about Rs 9.4 billion and it would help store water for agriculture, mitigate floods, provide employment opportunities and emancipate women. The concrete-faced rock-filled dam is 820 feet long and 141 feet high, which will store about 120,000 acre feet of water to help irrigate 25,000 acres of land, besides creating 4,500 employment opportunities during the construction, operation and its maintenance, he said, adding, annual benefits of the project have been estimated at more than Rs 1 billion.
The life of the water reservoir would be more than 100 years. It is pertinent to mention that the federal government has announced to provide up to 25 acres of land to poor women belonging to the project area.