All Pakistan Grand Canal from Chashma Barrage to irrigate Kachi plain in Baluchistan

Faulty projects conceived by WAPDA

WAPDA blundered not to irrigate Kachi Plain  from a higher elevation at Chashma Barrage by simply extending Chashma Right Bank Canal beyond Dera Ghazi Khan. This was pointed out by me in 1962 in my Master Plan. The failure of Kachi Canal Project and many other mega faulty projects of dams, irrigation canals and of land drainage to remove salinity, prove that Pakistan is bankrupt in planning and developing of its limited land, water and hydropower resources. All organizations like Planning Division, WAPDA, IRSA, PARC, Ministry of Water and Power, and the Ministry of Agriculture proved, inefficient, inert, and of no worth. So are the four provinces.

WAPDA took off Kachi Canal for Baluchistan from the Indus River at Mithon Kot with a wrong alignment, mostly running as a feeder canal. WAPDA then suddenly abandoned it, as it was not commanding the desired area in Baluchistan. At the same times its cost was raised from Rs30 billion to Rs 70 billion. Prime Minister has then ordered an enquiry.

As a consequence of this blunder, WAPDA shifted the alignment of Kachi Canal to Taunsa Barrage for better command after abandoning the first alignment from Mithon Kot to irrigate the negligible area of Kachi plain in Baluchistan.

Baluchistan is the largest province of Pakistan but has no direct source of irrigation from the Indus. Baluchistan’s small share of water in the Indus water is also stolen by Sindh at Gudu Barrage. Baluchistan always lodges complaints but no one listens.

I prepared a Master Plan in 1962 for the optimum development of land, water and hydropower of Pakistan. During my investigations, I discovered unique 35 maf Katzarah Dam about 20 miles downstream Skardu town. I then spotted a barren vast Kachi plain on the GTS sheet. It came to my mind to build a barrage on the Indus at Chashma site and take off All Pakistan Grand Canal to irrigate almost the entire Kachi plain of Baluchistan besides irrigating lands in Dera Ismail Khan and Dera Ghaxi Khan. Chashma Right Bank Canal would have been merged in All Pakistan Grand Canal.

Copy of this Master Plan was personally presented by me to the then Governor of West Pakistan, Malik Amir Mohammad Khan Nawab of Kalabagh. The Governor after personally examining the Master Plan, discussed it with the President FM Mohammad Ayub Khan who in turn requested President Kennedy of USA to help. President Kennedy requested the World Bank President who sent a team of experts on water resources development to Pakistan headed by Dr Pieter Lieftnick. This team worked in Pakistan for about 6 years and prepared  three volume report, initiating about 150 mega to small dam sites in Pakistan. Dr Pieter Lieftnick confirmed my discovery of Katzarah Dam in 1968. No body took notice of the Master Plan prepared by me and on the report of Dr Pieter Lieftnick. Hierarchs are not in the habit of reading and pondering.

During my preliminary investigations, I found that it is possible to irrigate the Kachi plain of Baluchistan from Chashma Barrage by gravity flow. The pond level at Chashma Barrage was assumed to be 642 feet. Sibi is at elevation of 440 feet. Therefore, gravity flow is possible to irrigate the highest point of Kachi plain at elevation 440 feet (Sibi town) with canal slope 1 in 10,000. Detailed survey and investigation would lead to the design of the canal.

All Pakistan Grand Canal can irrigate 3 million acres of Kachi plain. The canal can cross Baluchistan border to enter into Sindh. Detailed feasibility report would clear many things.

Kachi Canal in the form of All Pakistan Grand Canal would create irrigation system on the right bank of the Indus River. This will be like mini Indus basin on the right bank of the Indus. The irrigation system will be provided a road in the shape of highway or Motorway joining Karachi with Islamabad. It will be a very short cut from end to end of the country. The Canal would open new areas in the country for development.

WAPDA proved itself to be an inert, and inefficient organization based at Lahore, run by charlatans devoid of professionalism. It is white elephant and is a state with in state, spending money on wrongly planned flawed projects thereby destroys land, water and hydropower development resources of Pakistan, creating water shortage, crippling load shedding, flood havoc, food shortage, destruction of land due to salinity, silting of reservoirs and creating long status quo. There is dire need to shift WAPDA’s head quarter from isolated Lahore to Islamabad where all help is readily available. WAPDA needs to be replaced by the proposed Indus Valley Authority.

I would sum up few facts of WAPDA’s  incapabilities. These are;

WAPDA initially wasted money on a wrong alignment of Kachi Canal, off taking from Mithan Kot, then all of sudden abandoned it, wasting billions of rupees. The project was started at random with no ground survey and investigations. The estimated cost of canal was Rs 30 billion but raised to more than Rs 70 billion. The Prime Minister then ordered enquiry.

After abandoning the Mithon Kot alignment of Kachi canal after wasting billions of rupees, WAPDA shifted its alignment to Taunsa head works. There is no news how far the Canal is competed.

WAPDA badly failed to conceive drainage of saline land by the world’s recognized system of surface and subsurface tile drainage. WAPDA prepared faulty and wrong SCARPs based on tube wells that cannot remove salinity and cannot maintain salt and water balance. It therefore, failed wasting Rs 250 billion.

WAPDA again prepared drainage project to remove salinity of land under the title National Drainage Programme. This was again based on tube wells that also failed wasting Rs500 billion.

WAPDA selected dam site at Kalabagh under a tailored Terms of Reference for the Project Consultants, instructing them to provide Restricted Mid-level sluicing hydraulic design, assuming that it would evacuate silt from the reservoir and not create backwater flow in Kabul River. The consultants disagreed with the suggestion of WAPDA that silt will not be evacuated with restricted mid-level sluicing design and that there will be unacceptable backwater flow in Kabul River. The Consultants advised to provide unrestricted low-level sluicing design to evacuate silt. WAPDA disagreed. The Consultants suggested 160 feet height of the dam due to weak foundation but WAPDA insisted for 260 feet height of the dam. Due to wrong hydraulic design, keeping the Indus on run-of the-river for about 4 months, the project could only produce 1450 MW of hydropower. WAPDA therefore directed the Consultants to install 2000 MW of Thermal Power Plant attached to the dam as its part. Besides these faults pointed out by the Consultants, there are many other serious faults in the project that would be discussed elsewhere.

If Kalabagh Dam was built with a height of 260 feet on weak foundation and adopting  Restricted mid-level sluicing hydraulic design, faced this cataclysmic floods from Kabul, Swat, Panjkore and the Indus Rivers, Peshawar valley would have completely destroyed as repeatedly pointed by me. Not only this, there was extreme danger to the structure of the dam, destroying the net work of barrages and the towns on the bank of the Indus River. Swat River has destroyed Munda head works of the Lower Swat Canal.   

The recent devastating floods is therefore a proof that a dam at Kalabagh would have been a blunder. I therefore opposed the construction of Kalabagh Dam on technical grounds. WAPDA wasted Rs 250 billion on Kalabagh Dam and a period of 30 years in status quo.

WAPDA initiated work on Munda Dam that is only single purpose power dam on run-of-the-river with almost no storage. It cannot control floods. WAPDA missed an excellent, multipurpose dam site at Guroh Dop on Panjkora River with a storage capacity of 8.5 maf discovered by me in 1962 and included in my Master Plan. If Guroh Dop dam was built, it would have absorbed the super floodwater in its huge storage of 8.5 maf. Why WAPDA missed this dam site, located only a few KM on the upstream, is a dilemma. The Government should make inquiry for such blunder so that WAPDA improves its investigation and planning. This shows great negligence and lack of investigation. Guroh Dop Dam and Katzarah Dam were brought to the notice of WAPDA repeatedly but Kalabagh was a hurdle that created long status quo in dam building. Katzarah Dam will control super flood on the Indus River and Guroh Dop Dam will control floods in Kabul River. These two dams will substantially reduce the fury of such floods. Both these dams were discovered by me in 1962 and intimated to WAPDA and others. These dams must be given priority to save human life and property for facing flood due to climate change. 

Dr Pieter Lieftnick rejected Akhori Dam with a height of 250 feet to store 3.3 maf of water. It is an indirect dam to be fed from Tarbela Reservoir through a mega canal with a discharge of 80,000 cusecs across the cross country. The Akhori Dam is rejected by the World Bank Consultants due to serious foundation problems. It involves 3 times the earthwork of Tarbela Dam. More over, the height of Tarbela Dam shall have to be raised from 1550 feet to 1565 feet to feed Akhori reservoir. This may or may not be possible.

Surprisingly, WAPDA appointed local consultants at high cost simply to spend money on consultancy. WAPDA directed the local consultants to raise the height of Akhori Dam from 250 feet to 420 feet to create a reservoir of 7 maf. All this is fantastic with hidden motives to spend money on consultancy. Why money is spent on a project that is rejected by the World Bank Consultants?

WAPDA has again wrongly planned the storage capacity of Kurram Tangi Dam by providing low height of the dam. Kurram River is a silty river, it must have as large a storage reservoir as possible but WAPDA restricted the height of dam to keep the cost of the dam as low as possible ignoring the lifespan of the reservoir. This is wrong.

In a similar way, WAPDA has planned Tank Zam Dam, Daraban Zam Dam, Sheikh Hyder Zam Dam and Choudhwan zam Dam. In short, WAPDA is bent upon destroying land, water and hydropower resources simply due to its inertness, inefficiency and leisurely attitude. WAPDA is spent-thrift achieving no objective. 

Gomal Dam on Gomal River was under construction at Gul Katch dam site. I was posted to the running project as Project Director in 1959. On examination of the dam site at Gul Katch under full execution, after taking over charge of the project, I found to my surprise that the location of the Gomal Dam at Gul Katch was totally wrong as excellent and extremely narrow dam site (85 feet) at Khajuri Katch below the confluence of Zob River and Gomal Rivar was ignored. I discovered the new dam site at Khajuri Katch on Gomal River in 1959 as soon as I took over the charge as Project Director. The dam site is located in the most dangerous area in South Waziristan Agency but I did not care for my safety. I prepared the preliminary feasibility report of the new project after its complete ground investigations. I travelled in the mountain valley called “Dozakh Tangi”, the most hottest and deserted difficult valley.

I stopped the work at Gul Katch dam site and informed the then Chairman WAPDA Ghulam Faruque. He was surprised and visited the dam site with a team of HARZA Consultants and the Yugoslave Consultants. The American Consultants said; “they have 30 years of dam construction experience throughout the world but have never seen such a spectacular dam site”. Similarly, Yugoslave Consultants highly appreciated the new dam site. The work was taken in hand in 1959 and the consultants were ordered by the Chairman to complete it with in three years if possible. Later on, the Chairman left the job due to political reasons. I was also transferred for the same reason. It is surprising to know that WAPDA has not yet completed the Gomal Dam at Khajuri Katch in 50 years. What more the Government wants to know? How things are going to be improved? God bless Pakistan.