CHAKWAL: “Six years ago when we were ordered to sell our land to the government for the construction of this dam, we thought it would change our lives as our land will be irrigated and we would be getting bumper crops each year,” said Haji Gul Muhammad, a resident of Uthwal village.

Each day the 85-year-old grazes his cattle at the banks of Uthwal-Lakhwal Dam every day. He wears a look of despair and anger on his face as he stares at the 133 foot high Uthwal-Lakhwal dam which is being used as a fish farm, rather than for irrigation purposes.

The Uthwal-Lakhwal is not the only dam in the area which has been rendered useless for farmers due to the incompetence and negligence of the concerned officials.

Sources in the Small Dams Division told Dawn that these dams built at a hefty cost of Rs1 billion are not able to irrigate agricultural land due to flaws in the design of the canals connected to the dam.

The other two dams are Dharabi Dam and Khai Dam. The Punjab government spent billions of rupees in building small dams in the Rawalpindi Division so that the pluvial areas of Potohar region could be irrigated.

In Chakwal district twenty-one such dams have been built so far. Although water is being supplied to the fields from many dams but three mega projects of Dharabi, Uthwal-Lakhwal and Khai dams have failed due to design flaws in the canals.  

Three dams constructed at Rs1 billion do not irrigate land due to design flaws

It has been learnt that concerned authorities are considering reconstructing the canals connected to these three dams and reconstruction would put extra financial burden on the public exchequer.

Work on the construction of Uthwal-Lakhwal Dam began in March 2008 and was to be completed in two years at the cost of Rs449.861 million. However, due to administrative problems, the project was completed in 2012. The dam was to irrigate land in Ballo Kassar, Uthwal, Lakhwal and Vero villages.

Two years after completion, it does not provide water to a single plot of land and the district administration has failed to pay a penny as compensation to those poor farmers whose land was taken away for the construction of the dam.

Broken canal of Dharabi Dam near Bikhari Kalan village. — Dawn

“When we gave our precious land for the construction of this dam, we believed our fields would be irrigated and we would get better yields from our crops. But this dam has brought nothing but misery for us,” Mohammad Rafique, a farmer from Lakhwal village, said.

“So far, 10 people have died from drowning in this dam and so have many animals,” said Mohammad Arif, a farmer from Uthwal village.

Work on Dharabi Dam, the largest dam in the district, began on November 1, 2005 and completed in 2012.

This dam, constructed at the cost of Rs368.441 million was supposed to irrigate 6,400 acres. However, this dam too, does not irrigate any land because of design flaws in the connecting canals. Today, these abandoned waterways are no longer functional and are buried under thick grass.

Similarly, work on Khai Dam began in 2005 and was to be completed in 2007 at a cost of Rs154 million but was completed in 2008. Six years after its completion Khai Dam also does not irrigate a single plot of land.

“We expected that this dam would benefit us but it instead brought us destruction as the spillway was broken in the last monsoon rains and our village was flooded,” says Arif Hussain, a resident of Khai village.

The authorities could not build the road leading towards this dam either.

The rest houses at these dams also look deserted as the Small Dams Department has not deployed enough staff to keep them functional.

On the other hand all dams in the district have been auctioned for fish farming, a business which is polluting the water in these dams as animal waste and hazardous materials are used as fish feed,

When contacted, Executive Engineer Syed Jalil Arshad confirmed that due to design flaws in the canals connected to these dams, they are not functional.

“We are trying our best to fix the problem,” he said.

Published in Dawn January 14th , 2015

On a mobile phone? Get the Dawn Mobile App: Apple Store | Google Play