PESHAWAR, July 8: The Irrigation Department of Fata has constructed two small dams in tribal area and work on 12 more dams at an estimated cost of Rs1006.947 million is in progress.

This was stated by Fata Director of Irrigation Mir Ghulam Khan while talking to APP. The Fata Irrigation Department, the official said, was fully concentrating on conservation of water through construction of reservoirs and improving the ground water level in the area.

The tribal area, including the frontier region, he said, was blessed with diversity of climate and out of seven million acres of land, only 0.5 million is under cultivation mainly because of lack of irrigation water facilities.

The development plan for Fata launched by the governor was aimed at providing basic facilities to tribesmen and building their capacity by providing them means of having a direct impact on their economy, he added.

The two dams constructed are Milwad at Bara Tehsil in the Khyber Agency and Pandiali dam in the Mohmand Agency. The Pandiali dam has been constructed at a cost of Rs25 million and Milwad at Rs20 million and both of them were irrigating 300 and 250 acres of land, respectively.

He said the department had completed PC-1 of 12 dams and work on six others had been started. The construction of the remaining six dams would be started in the current fiscal, he added.

About the 12 dams, he said, these were: Kharo Khawar Small Dam, Raghagan (Bajaur Agency), Jawakai (FR Kohat), Kot Ragha, Miadani (Kurram Agency), Mir Kalam, Marsi Khel and Danday (North Waziristan Agency), Dargai Pal, Chao Tangi (South Waziristan Agency) and Parwara dam in FR, D.I. Khan.

After the completion, these dams would irrigate about 8571 acres of land in the tribal belt, the Fata Irrigation Director said. Apart from construction of dams, the department was working on perspective planning and in this regard Nespak had been assigned the task of surveying the tribal area and identify potential sites for small dams, he said.

Nespak consultants, he said, had identfied 19 suitable sites for the construction of small dams. The break-up of 19 sites is as under: five in Khyber Agency, six in Mohmand, three in Bajaur, three in FR Kohat and two in FR, Peshawar.

Out of the above potential dam sites, the Bara dam is the most potential and large one having the capacity of generating two to three megawatt electricity apart from providing water for irrigation and drinking purposes.

The governor had recently announced construction of the Bara dam which will irrigate 50,000 acres of land. The feasibility study work of the dam has been started and on completion, construction work will soon be started on it, the official said. -APP