The South Punjab has natural resources to store rainwater in small dams to avoid massive destruction over thousands of acres of agricultural land caused by flood in the absence of dams. The region has also a potential to produce renewable energy such as windmills on the hilltops that can help boost affordable energy in the public sector, Lok Sujag has learnt.

Statistics say the Rajanpur district is the core area of hill torrents whose rainwater brings destruction after emerging from Sulaiman Range and falling speedily into the low-lying areas across the district.

The district profile compiled by the Punjab government shows average rainfall in Rajanpur district ranging from 293mm to 173mm in the past 4-5 years, which destroyed thousands of acres of agricultural land, displaced hundreds of families and washed away schools, dispensaries and health centres.

Hill torrents and dam project

Kaha Sultan hill torrent in Rajanpur district originates from Sulaiman Range. During British rule, desilting of Kaha Sultan was an obligation of villagers and each village contributed to the desilting drive. This desilting has vanished years since the end of the British rule. Kaha Sultan in Dara needs to be desilted yearly and widened to prevent overflowing and ravage rural and urban settlements, as they did recently in Dera Ghazi Khan and Rajanpur.

Four spells of monsoon rains fell over the Sulaiman Range, starting in July, continuing to August. The downpours triggered ferocious hill torrents that swept through Dera Ghazi Khan and Rajanpur districts, causing widespread casualties and the devastation of crops, houses and road networks. The hill torrents in 2022 were stated to be 400 times mightier than usual.

Millions of acre feet of hill torrents water is wasted every year in the district where the federal government had proposed the Murunj Dam in 2009 when the PPP government was ruling in the center. The project was scheduled to complete in 2020 but 16 years have passed but the project could not be executed despite completion of all studies. The dam was first proposed during the tenure of former President Pakistan Sardar Farooq Khan Leghari from 1993 to 1997.

The PPP government, led by Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani, assigned the Water & Power Development Authority (Wapda) the task to prepare a PC-I of the project. Wapda proposed the Murunj Dam project across KahaNullah, 116km West of district Rajanpur at the cost of Rs349.9m in 2009. The Power Division also proposed hydel power generation from the dam site.

A senior official at the Murunj Dam project confided to Lok Sujag that Wapda has completed whole technical and feasibility studies of dam but there is a major problem of lack of financial resources and funding to execute the project. “The government is searching for the windows to find funds. The total construction cost of the Murunj Dam has reached to Rs176bn while the approved PC-I cost was just Rs349m in 2009,” the officials says.

Politics over Murunj Dam

Political wheeling and dealing over vested interests among the mainstream political parties in getting the credit of the project delayed the construction work. This happened despite the power shortage plaguing the county as an overview by the Punjab Power Development Board (PPDB) says that Pakistan has been facing serious power shortfall challenges for the last many years.

The domestic, commercial, agricultural and industrial activities are grossly compromised due to unavailability of inexpensive energy sources.

Political workers and Seraiki nationalists say there are many causes for the delay in the establishment of Murunj dam but major causes include discriminatory policies towards South Punjab, inconsistent political governments, lack of fixing priorities to produce cheap electricity and financial constraints. The Seraiki nationalists consider the delayed dam project the most valuable project as it will not only help cultivation of thousands acres of agricultural land but also save the people from the hill torrents destruction and make the land fertile.

The Gorchani tribe first time highlighted the viability of alternative energy sources from the wasted water of hill torrents in 2010. The PPP’s former MPA Sardar Athar Gorchani says, “We had submitted a proposal for Kaha Sultan Dam before the then prime minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani in 2011. Gilani took up the proposal and initially ordered a road to access. The PPP government ended in 2013, leaving the project in the lurch.”

He says that despite political differences, the credit goes to Sardar Jafar Khan Leghari (late) who made honest efforts for the dam under the changed title of Murunj Dam, he added.

Former Additional Inspector General of Police Sardar Akhtar Khan Gorchani says the word ‘Kaha’ actually is derived from Seraiki language and it is used for hill-torrent and Sultan was a spiritual leader in ancient times whose shrine still exists in the area. “The locals named the hill torrent as Kaha Sultan hill torrent centuries before,” he says.

Opposition from Balochistan

According to Sardar Akhtar Khan Gorchani, another problem arose five or six years ago when the people of Balochistan raised an objection that since Murnj is their area, the construction of the dam in Balochistan will submerge their areas such as Bekar, Murunj, Phewg.

The Punjab officials convinced Baloch people that the dam would be built in the Punjab region and the officials from both the provinces proposed a joint visit to the site.

“I remember that one day, while going for a site visit, senior engineers of Wapda and SE Irrigation Balochistan stopped at Lalgarh for a while where I also tried my best to explain to the irrigation officials of Balochistan that Murunj area was actually in Punjab and the Balochistan authorities were able to register our three districts of Sham, Khulchas and some parts of Murunj at the time of Revenue Settlement arrangement after the creation of Pakistan because the influential people of Bugti tribe were living there. So now Murnj and Khulchas are also in Punjab and there are villages with the same name in Balochistan too. I told the Balochistan irrigation officials that we have a regular BMP Police Station in Murunj”.

Gorchani says his second argument with the officials was that though it was named Murunj Dam, it will actually be built farther to the east at the Nilagh Kund location, with no risk of flooding in the areas of Balochistan. However, the controversy was over after the visit of Balochistan irrigation officials”.

No Baloch party immediately available for comments.

Uncertainty looms large

The Wapda documents say the proposed dam has a production capacity of 12MW, storage capacity of 80MAF and live storage of 60MAF. The height of the dam is set at 107 feet and it will irrigate an area of 120,000 acres.

The documents, available at Wapda portal, have established the dam project has changed its construction site thrice in 16 years, leaving thousands of acres of agricultural lands at the mercy of hill torrents.

A contract agreement was signed between Wapda and M/s Nespak-JV on May 20, 2020 and Rs137m were allocated in 2022-2023 in the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) but physical work could not be executed.

According to a report, prepared by ex-project in-charge of Murunj Dam General Manager (Hydro) Planning Engineer Nazakat Hussain, the topographic Survey of Darrah site (Barrage Site), Mud Kund site (Dam site) and reservoir area have been completed.

Geotechnical investigations and geological mapping at Darrah site have been done while they are in progress at the Mud Kund site. The measurements at Darrah Site are being carried out by the Surface Water Hydrology Project (SWHP) of Wapda to establish flow and sediments. The collection of soil and water samples from the command area has been completed.

The consultants have surveyed for barrow areas for riprap, coarse and fine aggregates and further investigation are in progress. The environmental survey in the project area for preparation of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) report is in Progress. Installation of Automatic Stage Recorder (ASR) is in process. The consultants have submitted a Draft Feasibility Report (DFR), the report added.

Nazakat Hussein has been transferred to Diamer-Bhasha Dam in line with his service matters. A senior project official at Wapda says dam design has been completed but he cannot say when the government is going to execute it for want of funds. He says he has no information about the current fate of the project.

Delay causes massive devastation

The Rajanpur district administration reports say that the delay in the construction of Murunj dam causes massive devastation.

Statistics available with Rajanpur district administration say the flash flood of 2022 developed from the Sulaiman Range from the western side of Rajanpur and the Kaha Sultan hill torrent received 108,941 cusec water while 75,900 cusec was reported in Chachar hill torrent. This rainwater runs throughout the district and falls into the Indus River at different locations of Rajanpur and Rojhan.

Sixty people had lost their lives, 458 schools, 18 hospitals, 912,423 acres land and 36,000 houses were damaged in Dera Ghazi Khan and Rajanpur districts in the 2022 flood. In Rajanpur district alone, 12 people lost their lives while 3,192 people were injured while 425 schools, 16 hospitals, one college, 318,423 acres of crops and 28,646 houses were damaged. There was no weather forecast station available in Rajanpur while the district received 293mm of rain in 2022. However, the weather and climate data available for the nearby district i.e. Faisalabad, Multan and Bahawalpur have been taken and considered for Rajanpur district. The rainfall history indicates that floods occur almost every year and wreak havoc in the district is witnessing visible climate change impacts as its flood severity and frequency have become unpredictable.

In 2023 also, floods in Rajanpur district caused significant destruction to the area, killing 12 people and leaving 3,000 people injured. The floodwater destroyed 300,000 acres of croplands besides destroying 28,000 houses. It destroyed more than 425 schools, 16 hospitals and a number of small bridges.

Energy minister keen on Murunj Dam

Federal Minister for Power Sardar Awais Ahmed Leghari was not immediately available for comments. However, a senior official in his staff said that the minister had been very keen to complete the dam but insufficient financial resources and unavailability of funds were major hurdles.

He said the minister held a meeting in connection with early completion feasibility study of small dams and he directed the quarters concerned for early completion of the ongoing feasibility study for the construction of several small dams on hill torrent drains in Taunsa, Dera Ghazi Khan and Rajanpur on April 3.

The minister also directed the authorities concerned that all the stakeholders should be included in the consultation process during the process of the feasibility study. “The Murunj Dam’s project has already been sent to the Ministry of Water Resources for approval after ministers’ intervention,” the official said.