The Pakistan National Geo-tech Engineering Society (PNGES) today arranged a special lecture of the eminent Swiss scholar Dr Martin Wieland on "Dam structures on fault lines" today at WAPDA Auditorium, WAPDA House, Lahore. Dr Martin is the President of the Seismic Committee of International Commission on Large Dams and, at present, is associated with Neelum-Jhelum Hydroelectric Power Project as one of the members of International Panel of Experts (PoE).
Pakistan Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA) Chairman Syed Raghib Abbas Shah, PNGES President Dr Amjad Agha, former Member (Water) WAPDA Asif Qazi and a large number of engineers belonging to various engineering organisations attended the lecture. Dr Martin Wieland, during his lecture, gave a detailed run-down of the safe designs of dams in the seismic zones. He quoted various examples from all over the world vis-à-vis fault lines and the dams, which had been constructed over those fault lines. He also spoke of fault movements, discontinuities in dam footprints, ways to resist fault movements and the international guidelines for constructing dams on or near fault lines. He also shared with the audience a number of case studies and models in this regard.
Responding to a question, Dr Martin said seismic parameters adopted for Neelum-Jhelum Hydroelectric Power Project are appropriate to cater for any seismic activity in the project area and the dam/weir of the project has been designed accordingly. In his concluding remarks, WAPDA Chairman said that exchange of views through such an interaction about significant issues always helps engineer community finding appropriate solutions of the problems. He said that having experience of constructing mega dams like Tarbela and Mangla to its credit, WAPDA has entered seismic zones of the country for construction of other projects.