IRSA Member (Federal/CEA) negative role on Ministry’s letter No: 4/18/2002-W.III dated 23 April, 2011 that asked for comments on my proposals to use Chinese Offer on building Katzarah Dam, Guroh Dop Dam and Raised Fateh Barrage

To,

The Secretary,

Ministry of Water and Power, Islamabad.

Sub: IRSA Member (Federal/CEA) negative role on Ministry’s letter No: 4/18/2002-W.III dated 23 April, 2011 that asked for comments on my proposals to use Chinese Offer on building Katzarah Dam, Guroh Dop Dam and Raised Fateh Barrage.

Sir,

            IRSA in its letter No: CE(O)/IRSA/79/2416-24 dated 10.5.2011 addressed me that I should  give briefing on  my proposal to use Chinese offer to produce hydropower as the Ministry asked IRSA to examine my proposal and submit comments. The multipurpose proposals consisted of building 35 maf Katzarah Dam generating 15,000 MW, 8.5 maf Guroh Dop Dam above 500 MW, and 3+3 maf Raised Fateh Barrage generating 2000MW to 6000 MW.

 “that proposal of Mr Fateh Ullah Khan may be examined and comments may please be furnished to Ministry of Water and Power through return fax/email. This may kindly be treated most immediate”.

I gave three hours briefing on the remarkable proposals, and submitted four detailed papers on each dam. Every one present in the briefing agreed. The Authority collectively decided in the meeting to recommend these dams to the Government as proposed by me and to carry out their pre-feasibility reports.

 Chairman IRSA took great interest in discussion. He wished the Authority to go to the Water Advisor so that I also brief the Advisor. As I have a knee joint problem and disable to go to the Secretariat, I requested the Chairman to request the advisor to come down to IRSA office to attend my briefing. The Advisor very kindly agreed and came to IRSA office. I repeated the briefing, and all agreed to send their recommendation to the Ministry. The Authority desired to prepare the pre-feasibility report.

Surprisingly, after few days and out side the Authority, Member Fed/CEO changed his stance as expressed in the briefing. He insisted NOT to give opinion on my proposals to the Ministry by naming the dams as proposed by me and not to name me in the letter without giving any reason. Member Federal/CEO desired that IRSA should recommend  creating 20 maf of storage only, not naming any dam, their storage capacities, power generation, CI ratio, life span, preventing silt flow and other merits. He suggested vague and random reply on such important matter. Federal Member/CEA ignored to comment on the proposals. I unofficially got this information from the office of CEA.

The obstructionist attitude of Federal Member/CEA causes delay so that Chinese run away. What is said after the meeting is unacceptable, as it becomes his personal, biased, and prejudiced views given in my absence. This is why I recommend appointing Chinese or HARZA Consultants to prepare pre-feasibility reports of Katzarah, Guroh Dop Dam and the unique Raised Fateh Barrage.

Yours Sincerely,

Engr Fateh Ullah Khan,  Former Chairman IRSA

BSc Eng (Distinction in Dams and Reservoir Engineering), M.ASCE  (USA), FIE(Pak), Dated 30.5.2011

Copy to:    Advisor (Water)  Riaz Ahmad Khan. Please refer to DAWN dated 29.5.2011 for news item “De-silting to prolong Tarbela Dam’s life”. Tarbela Reservoir has silted up by (11.6-6.7)=5 maf with in 35 years. The 50 miles long silt delta is about 3 Km away from the Power House. By the year about 2035, silt delta will block flow to the powerhouse. This will deprive Pakistan of 3478 MW of power. The unique Katzarah Dam works as Water shed Management Dam in preventing silt flow that will prolong life of all the dams on the downstream. Basha Dam life will increase from 90 years to 800 years and Tarbela by about 50 years. We must use Chinese offer on the multipurpose Katzarah Dam without loss of time.

The need for unique Katzarah Dam, Guroh Dop and Raised Fateh Barrage

Crippling load shedding, acute water shortage, inter-provincial water disputes, Water Accord implementation (paras 2,4, 6, and 14(e), Indian aggression to hold water in occupied Kashmir, planning 12 dams on Kabul River by India, preventing silt flow in the Indus and flood of 2010 that may hit again, urgently require Katzarah dam and many more.  I suggest creating “Indus Valley Authority” to build dams.

Copy to: Chairman IRSA for information. IRSA proposed creating 20 maf storage is a marvelous initiative to implement Water Accord paras 2, 4, and 6. The four dams, namely Basha, Dassu, Bunji and Kohala would collectively store about 20 maf of water, costing about $ 48 billion. These dams are subject to rapid silting, and would lose storage capacity in due course of time. After that, Pakistan has no mega storage dam sites to replenish 20 maf storage.

The only solution is to build the single, unique, 35 maf Katzarah Dam that has a life span of more than 1000 years. It will cost about $12 billion.  After building Katzarah and stopping silt in Skardu valley, all downstream dams will have mostly indefinite life span. Rapid silting of reservoirs with poor CI ratio is the greatest problem faced by Pakistan. Therefore, care be taken in planning dams not to silt rapidly. Besides giving briefing to the Authority and Advisor Water, I have submitted detailed papers on my proposals. I am ready to contribute my 50 years experience with IRSA to overcome water and hydropower shortage besides controlling floods.