Chitral River diversion to Panjkora River basin for reducing floods in Kabul River

Chitral River is the largest tributary of Kabul River as it contributes over 10 maf of water to Kabul River. Out of  this, about 4 maf  of surplus floodwater can be diverted for four summer months, May through August to Panjkora River basin. Kabul River during floods of 2010 was running with a peak discharge of 400,000 cusecs of floodwater that destroyed Nowshera and other villages. Unfortunately, there is no dam site on Kabul River with in Pakistan, therefore to reduce the fury of floods in Kabul River, we have no other alternative except to build dams on its tributaries, namely Chitral River, Panjkora River and Swat River. For diverting one maf of floodwater, a tunnel to carry 4200 cusecs with a diameter of 17 feet would be required. The diversion of 4.0 maf of floodwater would require a tunnel with 33 feet diameter.

This requires a dam at Mirkhani El 3953 on Chitral River with a height between 400 to 450 feet to store about 0.6 maf of floodwater for transferring it through the 23 miles long tunnel passing through Lowari top and discharging in to the catchment area of Panjkora River near village Chutiatan at the confluence of Bacul Khawar at El 3850 feet.

The Chitral River water will be stored in a huge reservoir of 8.5 maf at Shigo Katch of Guroh Dop Dam discovered by me in 1959-60.  Panjkora River arm of Swat River has an annual flow of about 3.0 maf. Swat River arm has also 3.0 maf annual flow. A 400 feet high dam at Kalam with storage of 0.27 maf can also be built to reduce flood in Kabul River.

Besides this, a unique dam with a storage capacity of 35 maf at Katzarah will tame the flood fury of the mighty Indus and avoid backwater flow in to Kabul River.

Chitral River when crosses Pakistan border and enters Afghanistan is called Kunard River. The crossing point is about 12 to 14 miles on the downstream of Mirkhani Dam. The Government of Pakistan must sign a Water Treaty with the Government of Afghanistan. Chitral River has a length of about 175 miles in Pakistan and when it enters Afghnistan and is called Kunar River, its length is 95 miles. The river again enters Pakistan and passes through Warsak Dam for power generation .