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Tarbela Discharge to Exceed 150,000 Cusecs, Haripur WarnedPakistan
Haripur’s administration has warned riverside communities as water discharge from Tarbela Dam is set to exceed 150,000 cusecs during work on the T5 power project, with boating and swimming banned in the dam.
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Haripur (Dunya News) — Additional water will be released from Tarbela Dam during construction of the T5 Power Project in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Haripur district, potentially raising the water level in the Indus River above normal.
Assistant Commissioner Ghazi Junaid Aftab said water discharge from Tarbela Dam would exceed 150,000 cusecs today.
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He said announcements had been made urging communities living along the dam’s banks to move to safer locations in view of the expected increase in water flow. Residents have also been advised to avoid unnecessary movement near the Indus River and the dam.
Meanwhile, the administration has banned boating and swimming in the dam. Livestock owners have also been warned to keep their animals away from riverbanks to prevent any untoward incident.
The releases follow an incident on Monday, 9 November, at the T5 project site, when a weak section of rock collapsed during excavation of the second bench of the connecting tunnel and water from the intake pit entered the tunnel and the under-construction powerhouse.
The Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA) declared an emergency after the incident, suspended construction work indefinitely and moved workers to safer areas. WAPDA later said the intake pit had been completely drained and that no more water was entering the downstream work sites, adding that reports of Tunnel 5 itself collapsing were incorrect.
In a notification, WAPDA said discharges downstream of the dam were expected to remain above 150,000 cusecs round the clock and advised the departments concerned to make precautionary arrangements. The Indus River System Authority decided to lower the reservoir level from around 1,496 feet to 1,490 feet as a precaution.
The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Provincial Disaster Management Authority also alerted the administrations of Haripur, Swabi and Nowshera districts and asked them to keep riverbank settlements under close watch.
Haripur Deputy Commissioner Waseem Ahmed visited the site after the incident and said the main dam embankment had suffered no damage and that the situation was entirely under control.
The T5 project is being built on Tunnel 5 of Tarbela Dam, which was previously used only for irrigation releases. The project is intended to add 1,530 megawatts of generating capacity through three units of 510 megawatts each.
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