Six small dams to be completed next year

The construction of six small dams is expected to complete during next financial year (2011-12), which would help irrigate around 12,310 acres of agricultural land. The dams whose construction would be completed include Darmalak Dam (Kohat), Lawaghar and Karak Dam (Karak), Khair Bara Dam (Haripur), Jabba Khattak Dam (Nowshera) and Palai Dam (Charsadda).
An official at the Ministry of Water and Power on Saturday told newsmen that the government had so far constructed 49 small dams and planned to build eight more in Rawalpindi, Jhelum, Attock and Chakwal to promote agriculture in those regions.
The official said through those (49) dams 85,356 acres of land was being irrigated now, and added the feasibility study was being done on 11 more dams. Some of them would be built in 2011-12 while others in 2012-13, he added. He said those dams would not only help in irrigating the baron lands but also would provide clean drinking water to people.
The official said provincial government had allocated rupees one billion for Punjab Agriculture Research Board (PARB) and also doubled the budget for the improvement of research infrastructure. Answering a question, he said, 12 dams would be constructed in two phases in all the four provinces with storage capacity of 4 MAF water.
In the first phase Winder and Naulong dams would be constructed in Balochistan, Kurram Tangi in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Darwat and Nai Gaj in Sindh and Ghabir dam in Punjab. He said the government in support of four provincial governments, Fata, Northern Areas and Azad Jammu Kashmir had placed the highest priority to the development of water resources and generation of Hydel Power.