PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government's repeated requests to the Water and Power Development Authority for speeding up construction of Gomal Zam dam project's irrigation system have not elicited desired response, according to official sources.

The project, said concerned officials, was most likely to miss its scheduled completion date of February 2013. Funds for the irrigation component could not be arranged in time, rendering the execution of irrigation system at a slow pace.

“Only 25 per cent of the irrigation system could be completed by the end of November 2011,” said a well-placed KP government official.

According to an official document available with Dawn , out of the four components of the under-execution project, including dam and spillway, diversion tunnel, irrigation system, and hydropower component, work on three segments – other than the irrigation system – has either been completed or is near completion.

The timely completion of the hydel power generation components has left the provincial authorities to doubt Wapda's priorities vis-à-vis the Gomal Zam dam project.

“The components that are of their interest (dam and hydro power generation) would be ready well in time, whereas, the irrigation system that is of our (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's) interest appears to be low on their priority list,” said a development planner of the provincial government.

Involving a total water storage capacity of 1.140 million acre feet (MAF), the project would generate 17.4MW electricity. Besides, it would cater to the irrigation water requirements of thousands of farmers in Dera Ismail Khan and Tanks districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

An irrigation department official said the project was important for the provincial government as it would irrigate over 191,000 acres in D.I. Khan and Tank districts.

Farmers in Tank and D.I. Khan, said Iqbal Khan Miankhel, a D.I. Khan based farmer, met their irrigation water requirements through rainwater or floodwater, both of which, he added, were unpredictable sources.

The Gomal Zam project's irrigation system, said the official, would benefit the farmers as a 63-kilometre long canal and 369km long distributaries would be constructed to irrigate cultivable land.

The non-completion of irrigation system, said the official, would delay the benefit to the farming community.

“The provincial government has taken up the issue with Wapda many times, but to no avail,” said the official, adding, “even Chief Minister Ameer Haider Khan Hoti, too, took up the matter directly with Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, but that too has not worked”.

According to the official document, 24.56 per cent work of the irrigation system stood completed by June 30, 2011. Wapda, said an official, had set a target of completing the remaining 75.44 per cent in the 2011-12 financial year.

“But, by no means, the authority appears to be in a position to achieve the ambitious target,” said the official.

Officials said that Wapda used fragile law and order situation in the project area as a justification for the delay.

“But the security situation could not be put forth as cogent reason when you see at the rate of work completed on the dam and spillway as 98.55 per cent of the work has been completed,” said the official.

Gomal Zam dam is being built on Gomal River in troubled South Waziristan Agency. The project had initially been launched in July 2002 and was scheduled to be completed in September 2006.

However, work on it remained suspended for a long time due to volatile situation in the project area, particularly, after two Chinese engineers, deputed to work on the project site, were kidnapped in 2004 by Taliban.