Reservations of NWFP (Pukhtunkhwa)

NWFP objects to the KBD because, a sizable number of its people will be displaced, and a vast area of its land will either be submerged under the reservoir or rendered waterlogged.

 In the original design of KBD, the reservoir elevation was desired at 925-ft above MSL, at which the water level in River Kabul was feared to rise by 2.5-ft at Nowshera, immediately after construction and to the ultimate 9.5-ft after 30 years of the project implementation.

To account for this, and as protection against damages in these areas, WAPDA had proposed to erect 25-ft high dykes around the Kabul River, so as to protect the cities from the water’s spillover.

 However, due to the high risk factor for the flooding eventuality and subsequent drainage problems, the Government of NWFP seriously objected the designs of the project and conducted investigations in 1985 to assess the possible impacts of KBD on the Peshawar valley.

As a result, it was revealed that, at the 925-ft reservoir elevation, the following major impacts were expected to occur:

1. 60000 acres of area will be affected by the 1 in 5 year floods
2. 16 number unprotected villages will be required to be acquired and their population resettled
3. 64933 persons will require resettlement elsewhere.
4. Another 131000 persons will be requiring protection through 24 feet high dykes
5. A total of 28 miles long flood protection dykes will be constructed along the Kabul River, out of which 18 miles length will be specifically required to protect the Nowshera town alone.
6. The dykes retained water was feared to contribute to the overall rise in water table in the immediate vicinity of the reservoir.

 In addition, the following facilities were feared to be permanently submerged in the reservoir in a 1 in 100 year flood, and therefore required relocation:
i. 20.45 km of National Highway, 2 km Nowshera-Mardan road,

ii. 10 km Nizampur Attock road, 25 km Pir Sabak-Jehangira road
v. 6.92-km Railway line between Khairabad - Nowshera
vi. 5.43 km railway line between Nowshera - Mardan
vii. Bridge at Khushal Garh
viii. Khairabad Bridge at Attock required strengthening and modifications
ix. Jehangira Bridge required raising by 15 ft
x. Nowshera Railway Bridge required raising by 6-ft
xi. Nowshera Mardan Bridge required raising by 6-ft
xi. Telecommunication, power lines and gas lines also required relocation

 In the light of these findings, the Government of NWFP requested WAPDA to revise the project.

 Lately, WAPDA has revised the designs and reduced the reservoir elevation to 915-ft above MSL in July 1986. And declared the designs to be safe against all the evils of the previous design.

 Whereas, the validity of WAPDA’s statement of a mere 10-ft reduction in reservoir height to solve all the problems is questionable and worth detailed investigation, the people of NWFP doubt the predictions of WAPDA’s experts due to their previously ill-conceived designs of KBD, and hold strong apprehensions against the real objectives of the project.

They, therefore, still believe that:

1. The dam will raise the water level of River Indus throughout the Attock gorge, right through the Haro river confluence and upto the Akora Khattak on Kabul River. And resultantly, the Nowshera City, inhibited by 200,000 people falling on both the left and right banks of Kabul River, will be under severe threat of flooding. And in the long term of about 50 years time, the Nowshera City and its adjoining areas will become waterlogged swamplands, due to the seepage from the raised water level.
2. The Mardan and Swabi SCARP projects, covering 123,000 acres of irrigated land, will face certain threat of failure, because of their outfalls being lower than the high flood levels in KBD reservoir.
3. WAPDA has prepared a water release pattern of the post KBD irrigation supplies, which will have an adverse impact on the CRBC project, as it does not provide enough water for undertaking the lift components of CRBC in future. Similarly, the CRBC is also likely to be affected for long periods during the construction of the project and during the first ponding of the reservoir

Therefore, in the absence of an independent assessment of the damages at the 915-ft reservoir level, and with no-trust in WAPDA’s claims of all-well, the people of NWFP take the previously arrived figures of social and economic costs as an eye opener on the viability of the project.

People still believe that the mere 10-ft reduction in reservoir level will have a negligible mitigating impact in taking care of the colossal injury to NWFP.

A detailed discussion on the various dimensions of the project follows later.