Gomal River

Gomal
River
Country Afghanistan & Pakistan
province Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
Region South Waziristan Agency
Tributaries
 - left Wana Khwar
 - right Zhob River
Source Katawaz Region
Mouth Indus River
 - location Dera Ismail Khan
Length 400 km (249 mi)

Gomal River (Urdu: دریائے گومل‎, Pashto: ګومل سیند، ګومل دریاب‎) is a 400 km long river in Afghanistan and Pakistan, which is mentioned in the Rigveda as Gomatī (full of water). The river lends its name to the Gomal University in Dera Ismail Khan and the like-named Gomal District in Paktika Province of Afghanistan.

Origin and Course of Flow

Gomal River's headwaters are located south-east of Ghazni. The springs which form the headwaters of the Gomal's main branch emerge above the fort at Babakarkol in Katawaz, a district inhabited by Ghilji Pashtuns from the Kharoti and Sulaimankhel clans, in Paktika Province.[1] The Gomal's other branch, the "Second Gomal", joins the main channel about 14 miles below its source.[2] The Gomal flows southeast through eastern Ghilji country for approximately 110 miles before it merges with the Zhob River, its major tributary, near Khajuri Kach.[3][4] It is about 100 miles from the Zhob River to the Indus River.

Within Pakistan, the Gomal river surrounds the South Waziristan agency and forms the boundary between Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan. From South Waziristan, the river enters the Gomal Valley in the district of Tank, Pakistan at a place known as Girdavi, Murtuza which is inhabited by the Miani tribe. It is mainly here that the water of Gomal is used to cultivate the lands in Gomal Valley through Zam System (Rod Kohi). The river passes then through the Damaan plain in Kulachi Tehsil and later on through Dera Ismail Khan Tehsil, It then joins the Indus River 20 miles south of Dera Ismail Khan.[4]The Daming of this river at Khajuri Kachh was envisaged as back as 1898 but remained a distant dream, even after its administrative approval by the Government of Pakistan in 1963 and the work was stopped in 1965; not to restart till 2001, when the Gandapur Minister Aminullah Khan in Pervez Musharraf's regime, brought it to the notice of the President who performed the earth breaking ceremony of the project on 22 August 2001 and ordered immediate construction of the Dam through a Chinese Firm.[5]

There is also a street in E-7, Islamabad called the "Gomal Road".

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ "Natural Geography of Pakistan: 5- Hydrology: 5-1- Rivers: Gomal River" ECO Geoscience Database
  2. ↑ MacGregor, Charles Metcalfe (1871) Central Asia, pt. 2: A Contribution Toward the Better Knowledge of the Topography, Ethnology, Resources, and History of Afghanistan Office of the Superintendent of Government Printing, Calcutta, OCLC 48604589 reprinted by Barbican Publishing Co., Petersfield, England, in 1995, p. 308
  3. ↑ MacGregor, pp. 308-9
  4. 1 2 Gazetteer of Afghanistan VI (Farah), fourth ed., Calcutta, 1908, p. 238
  5. ↑ The Nation, Lahore, August 28; 2001 and Tareekh i Sarzameen i Gomal ISBN 978-969-37-0270-5; National Book Foundation Islamabad P- 433-34

Coordinates: 31°36′53″N 70°50′46″E / 31.61472°N 70.84611°E / 31.61472; 70.84611


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