Prime Minister Imran Khan shared a video of the ongoing construction of the country’s two major new water dams in a tweet posted on Tuesday: Mohmand and Bhasha.
Earlier this year during a Supreme Court meeting, Lieutenant-General (retired) Muzammil Hussain, Chairman of the Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA), announced that the two dams will be unveiled and functional later this decade. Mohmand Dam, told the Chairman, was scheduled to begin operations at the end of 2024, with the completion of Diamer-Bhasha in July 2028.
It is projected that the Mohmand dam will produce 800 megawatts of hydroelectricity and that the Diamer-Bhasha will generate a whopping 4,800 megawatts of electricity when completed.
Diamer-Bhasha will be able to store 10.5 cubic kilometres (8.5 million acres-ft) of water at maximum capacity, which will be used for irrigation, drinking and electricity production.
Mohmand dam is projected to irrigate over 16,000 acres of land. To preserve the environment’s balance, the surroundings of the dam would be filled with trees.
The Diamer-Bhasha is being constructed near Chilas, Gilgit Baltistan, on the Indus River. It is being built about 315 kilometres from the country’s Tarbela Dam, another major dam. The Diamer-Bhasha itself after Tarbela and Mangla, is expected to be the third biggest dam in the region.
With the country moving towards renewable energy resources and concentrating more and more on them, major projects such as dam building will prove to be a big investment in the long run. With these dams, tens of thousands of megawatts of energy can be generated, making the energy that is used in the country cheaper and more sustainable for the environment. As a result, Pakistan will concentrate on reducing its carbon footprint by reducing its use of fossil fuels and other non-renewable energy sources.
