CJP, water experts visit Mangla Dam

LAHORE: Chief Justice of Pakistan Mian Saqib Nisar, accompanied by other judges of the Supreme Court, and a delegation comprising foreign and local water experts visited the Mangla Dam — the largest water reservoir in Pakistan on Sunday. These water experts had gathered in Islamabad to attend an international symposium, ‘Creating Water-Secure Pakistan’.

Pakistan Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) Chairman Lt-Gen Muzammil Hussain (retd) and other senior officers welcomed the visitors at the Mangla Dam. The delegation was briefed that the Mangla Dam had been phenomenally contributing to economic development and social uplift of Pakistan for the last 51 years. It has been providing water for irrigated agriculture, mitigating floods and generating low-cost hydel electricity.

Since its commissioning in 1967, the Mangla Dam made more than 251 million-acre-feet (MAF) of storage releases for irrigation purposes and contributed about 233 billion units of electricity to the national grid.

The Wapda chairman stated that the consultants of Mangla Dam had envisaged the life of the Mangla reservoir from 100 to 115 years. However, effective watershed techniques adopted by Wapda and completion of Mangla Dam Raising Project have increased the life of Mangla reservoir to 269 years.

The Mangla reservoir produces about 500 metric ton of fish every year. Wapda handed over fishing rights in the reservoir to Azad Jammu and Kashmir government since 2003 as one of the confidence building measures, the delegates were informed. In view of the aging factor of the generating equipment and availability of additional water due to the raised Mangla Dam, Wapda is executing the Mangla Refurbishment Project. On completion of the project in a phased manner, the generation capacity of Mangla Hydel Power Station will increase to 1,310MW.