| Gomal Zam Dam | |
|---|---|
| Official name | Gomal Zam Dam |
| Location | South Waziristan Agency, Federally Administered Tribal Areas, Pakistan |
| Status | Under construction |
| Construction began | 2002 |
| Owner(s) | Government of Pakistan |
| Dam and spillways | |
| Type of dam | Arched gravity-type roller-compacted concrete dam |
| Height | 133 meters (437 feet) |
| Impounds | Gomal River |
| Reservoir | |
| Creates | Gomal Reservoir 1,140,000 acre feet (1.41 km3) |
Gomal Zam Dam is a hydro-electric power and irrigation project under construction in northwest Pakistan. It sits on the Gomal River in the South Waziristan Agency. The Gomal flows from neighboring Afghanistan southeast to the Indus River, of which it is a tributary. The dam impounds the Gomal River at Khajuri Kach, where the Gomal River passes through a narrow ravine.
The Dam site at Khajuri was first envisaged by four British officers of the Royal Corps of Engineers in 1898 and surveys were carried out at different times and levels. The Government of Pakistan gave its approval for construction of the Dam in August 1963 and the work was started on the ifrastructures butwas stopped due to the economic constraints of the 1965 Indo-Pak War and it could not restart in the twentieth century. However in 2001 the local Provincial Minister Aminullah Gandapur brought this apathy to the notice of the then President of Pakistan, General Pervez Musharraf, who ordered its construction in fast lane by formally performing the earth breaking ceremony of this long awaited and neglected Dam on August 21, 2001.(1a)
Gomal Dam is an arched, gravity-type roller-compacted concrete dam with a height of 133 meters (437 feet). It has a gross storage capacity of 1,140,000 acre feet (1.41 km3) and to irrigate about 163,000 acres (660 km2) of land. It will produce 17.4 MW of electricity.
In 2002, Pakistan's Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA) hired a Chinese joint venture, M/s CWHEC-HPE, to lead construction at a cost of about Rs. 4.388 billion. The venture joined China National Water Resources & Hydropower Engineering Corporation and Harbin Power Engineering Company. Work halted in October 2006 due to the security situation. Work resumed in 2007, after Pakistan put its army's construction branch, the Frontier Works Organisation, in charge. It hired as sub-contractors China's state-owned M/s Sinohydro Corporation to complete the dam, and Turkey's M/s Tekser to finish irrigation works. The total cost of the resumed project is about Rs. 12 billion.[1]
In July 2010, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) announced it would provide funding for the dam.[2]
Further delay to the project was caused by the 2010 Pakistan floods,.[3]
Construction of the Dam was completed in April 2011 and filling of the reservoir was started in the same month.[4]
(1.a) Gomal Zam Dam, The Nation, Lahore, August 27, 2001.