The misconception that dams reduce the flow of the river is not true: dams they simply store the surplus floodwaters.
LAHORE: The most common misconception about dams is that they reduce the flow of the river. This is not true: dams do not ‘consume’ water, they simply store the surplus floodwaters over a three month period for use during the remaining nine months. The example of Mangla and Tarbela dams is before us.
Records from the Sindh irrigation department show that the flow in the canals of Sindh increased by seven million acre feet after the construction of the two dams and there was a corresponding increase in the number of acres under cultivation in Sindh. This could not have happened if the dams had reduced flow in the rivers. Again, as recorded by the irrigation department, 18 million acre feet of floodwaters was lost to the sea in the year 2013. Kalabagh Dam would have stored and saved 6.1 million acre feet of this water out of which Sindh and Punjab would have both received 2.25 million acre feet and each would have cultivated millions of acres.
This mindset against dams needs to be undone so that the building of these important water reservoirs is able to get public support.
Engr Khurshid Anwer
Published in The Express Tribune, May 30th, 2014.
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