Mangla Dam Raising Project (Pakistan): General Review and Socio-Spatial Impact Assessment Saheeb-Ahmed Kayani To cite this version: Saheeb-Ahmed Kayani. Mangla Dam Raising Project (Pakistan): General Review and Socio-Spatial Impact Assessment. 2012. hal-00719226 HAL Id: hal-00719226 https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00719226 Preprint submitted on 19 Jul 2012 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. Mangla Dam Raising Project (Pakistan): General Review and Socio-Spatial Impact Assessment Saheeb Ahmed Kayani Department of Mechanical Engineering, College of Electrical and Mechanical Engineering, National University of Sciences and Technology, Islamabad-44000, Pakistan [email protected] Abstract – In this research paper, different aspects of Mangla the state of Azad Jammu and Kashmir and the province of dam raising project have been reviewed. The raising project like Punjab (district Jhelum). It can be reached by traveling the construction of the dam brought with it dislocation of a large towards north (about 16 km) from Dina town on the number of people as one major city and three towns in the state Islamabad-Lahore G. T. road (a section of N-5). of Azad Jammu and Kashmir have been affected (partially The Jhelum basin (upstream of Mangla) extends over the inundated). The affected population of these areas has been offered a generous compensation package by the government and southern slopes of the north-west terminus of the Himalayan various development projects have been launched for mountain range and the reservoir is situated in the south-west rehabilitation and even uplift of the living standards of these sub-basin in the Siwalik soft rocks. The original catchment people. It is too early to comment on the outcome of these area at the dam site is about 12,870 sq. miles. The mountain resettlement efforts but an attempt has been made to highlight range in which the river Jhelum flows is rugged, contains different human issues through an initial socio-spatial impact steep slopes, and presents extreme weather conditions. At assessment of the project. lower elevation vegetation is found and cultivation is practiced Keywords – Mangla dam raising; river Jhelum; sedimentation; if surface runoff is available. The catchment area lies in the resettlement; socio-spatial impact. active monsoon belt, in summer heavy rainfall and in winter light showers and snowfall is the norm [1]. In winter 1. INTRODUCTION precipitation is mostly deposited in the Mangla catchment as Pakistan has recently successfully completed the raising of snow, which is a source of runoff during summer months. The Mangla dam, a major water works system on river Jhelum. runoff from this precipitation is more than runoff due to This project has restored and even enhanced the storage rainfall [2]. The major source of rainfall is the monsoon capacity of Mangla dam reservoir. Pakistan’s agriculture weather system with August/September being the most active sector will definitely benefit from this increase in available months. Mangla catchment has two peak flow conditions, one water resource. The raising of the dam was accompanied with occurring in June and the other in the months July-September. a dislocation of a large number of people. In Mangla dam’s The higher June inflow is attributed to increased quantity of case this was a second displacement as the dam when snow-melt (due to rising temperatures) while the July- originally constructed brought about a relocation of September increase is a combination of rainfall and snow- unprecedented proportions during 1960s, which was a first of melt. Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA) of a kind experience for planners and engineers. Hundreds of Pakistan has 22 stream-gauging and climatological stations villages and many towns were inundated and thousands of scattered in Mangla catchment area for monitoring reservoir people lost their land and to some extent their culture. All operations. Some of these stations are dedicated rain-gauge or affectees received handsome compensation packages as they river-gauge stations that are also being used as flood warning are doing now but still grievances prevail and even new fears centers. Data from these stations (1967-2000) shows that mean have emerged. This brief research study focuses on introducing and discussing the matters associated with annual precipitation is about 32.5 in. in the Mangla catchment displacement of people as a result of the Mangla dam raising area [1]. project, and the socio-spatial impact on the communities being Sedimentation has always been considered a source of directly affected. Some background information about problem in the Mangla reservoir and a potential storage loss of geophysical features of the dam site, design and construction 1% per year was calculated during 1960s. It was also project, and comments on demographical setting of areas determined that serious issues with storage capacity would adjacent to the dam are also included. emerge after 40-50 years of operation leading to problems like passing increasing concentrations of sediment through power turbines and irrigation valves etc. Data on sediment inflow and 2. GEOPHYSICAL REVIEW accumulation is available (from 1967 onwards) and shows a The dam is located 115 km south-east of Islamabad, on the less than predicted rate of loss of storage capacity since the river Jhelum at Mangla. The dam is physically located both in construction of the dam. The loss of storage capacity due to sedimentation was such a source of concern for the designers Fig. 1 Layout of Mangla dam extension works, affected towns, and location of resettlement sites. (Image courtesy: WAPDA) of the dam that a provision for raising the dam in future was project include Mirpur, Islamgarh, Chaksawari, and Dudial incorporated in the original blue prints [1]. (lying on the left bank of the river Jhelum) in the state of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (Fig. 1). On the Punjab side, the reservoir 3. DEMOGRAPHICAL BACKGROUND periphery (on the right bank of the river Jhelum) is thinly populated and the effect of the raising is minimal. WAPDA As stated earlier, the Mangla dam reservoir is physically has estimated that a population of about 44,000 will be located both in the state of Azad Jammu and Kashmir and the affected by the raising project [1]. Of the cities/towns being province of Punjab. When the dam was constructed during directly affected, Mirpur is the largest one with a population of 1960s, WAPDA acquired land up to an elevation of 1210 ft. more than 100,000. Due to its size and strategic location, all along the periphery of the reservoir. This periphery extends Mirpur serves as a nerve and business center for rest of the up to 250 miles. Hundreds of villages, many small towns, and region. It is connected with all other towns through a good at least one major city (Mirpur) was inundated as a direct network of metalled roads. consequence of this project. Population in the state of Azad After the construction of Mangla dam, the displaced Jammu and Kashmir suffered more, the city of Mirpur was inhabitants were resettled in Punjab and Sindh provinces and relocated and reconstructed on a new site. also on the periphery of the reservoir. Many of these families For the 30 ft. raising of the dam, land has been acquired were unable to integrate with distant cultures of far off places from elevation 1210 ft. to 1250 ft. and the areas that lie on the where they were relocated. As a result they sooner or later periphery of the reservoir that have been affected by this disposed off their land and came back to Mirpur and adjoining very careful and sensitive in comparing economic and technical areas. A large number of people from the state of Azad Jammu aspects with social issues (arising as an outcome of the and Kashmir in general and Mirpur and adjoining areas in displacement of people) during the course of project particular were given work permits for UK. Their investment in evaluations. The raising project was formally started in fall rebuilding a new life for their families in Mirpur has played a 2002 and it was completed and inaugurated in October 2011. major role in infrastructure development and improvement of The expected cost was PKR 50 billion in 2002. The project was living standards in this part of the country [3]. Further ultimately completed with total expenditure exceeding PKR discussion on socio-spatial aspects of the project follows in 100 billion [5]. As a result of the raising, the height of the section 5. conservation level now stands at 1252 ft. A 14% increase in power generation (664 GWh per annum) is also expected [1], 4. DESIGN AND ENGINEERING ASPECTS [3]. Mangla dam is an earth filled dam with original design height 5. SOCIO-SPATIAL IMPACT of 380 ft. above river bed and a length of 10,300 ft. It was completed in 1967 and the main structures of the dam include 4 The towns located on the periphery of the Mangla dam embankment dams, 2 spillways, 5 power/irrigation tunnels, and reservoir that are being directly affected as a result of the a power station. The main reservoir extends over an area of raising project are Mirpur, Islamgarh, Chaksawari, and Dudial 97.7 sq.