Mohmand Dam is being constructed on the River Swat, upstream of Munda Headworks in Tribal District Mohmand of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. It is the 5th highest concrete face rockfill dam (CFRD) in the world. On completion, the dam will store about 1.2-million-acre-feet (MAF) of water and help mitigate floods in Peshawar, Charsadda and Naushera. Besides supplementing 160,000 acres of existing land, about 18,237 acres of new land will also be irrigated.
Mohmand Dam powerhouse will generate 800MW hydroelectricity. In addition, 300 million gallons of water per day will also be provided to Peshawar for drinking purpose. Annual benefits of the project have been estimated at Rs. 51.6 billion.
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Work on the Mohmand dam has been going smoothly
In the foothills of craggy hillsides that encircle the short river channel and debouch into the plains of Charsadda district, construction workers were seen removing earth and digging tunnels.
The project’s powerhouse would generate 800 megawatts (MW) of hydel electricity, supplying the national grid with 2.86 billion units of low-cost, environmentally friendly electricity yearly, generating about Rs45 billion in revenue.
Also, 300 million gallons of water will be provided to Peshawar per day for drinking purposes.
Update on 800 MW Under Construction Mohmand Dam. Work is being done simultaneously on nine different sites. It could be operational by 2025. #PakistanMovingForward #Mohmand #MohmandDam #KhyberPakhtunkhwa #Pakistan #Hydropower 🇵🇰🇵🇰 pic.twitter.com/OgXvylePhu
— Developing Pakistan (@developingpak) February 24, 2022
The Wapda engineers put the annual benefits from the project at Rs51.6 billion and said they had also planned to spend Rs4.53 billion on confidence-building measures for the socio-economic development of communities in the project area.
They said the project was estimated to produce 6,100 jobs, including 400 for engineers and 5,700 for semi-skilled workers.
Read more: 6,000 workers begin construction work of Mohmand Dam
Mohmand Dam will bring many opportunities
Mohammad Israel, a Wapda engineer, said around 80 per cent of work had been completed on the housing colony comprising 400 units, community center, school, hospital, mosque and other facilities.
Mohmand Dam is also expected to protect Nowshera and Charsadda districts from seasonal floods by storing peak floodwater in its reservoir and releasing it in dry seasons. In December 2010, in the aftermath of the July 2010 floods in Pakistan, the Pakistan Supreme Court had constituted a flood inquiry commission to investigate the damage caused by the July floods that engulfed the country and caused unprecedented damage to life and property.
In its report, the commission noted that if the Mohmand Dam had been constructed, there would have been minimal damage downstream in Charsadda, Peshawar and Nowshera districts and Munda Headworks.
Read more: PM performs groundbreaking of Mohmand Dam
According to the latest reports on Mohmand Dam, the work is being done simultaneously on nine different sites. It could be operational by 2025.