Filling of Tarbela dam 'good omen' for agriculture, hydel power: PM Imran

Prime Minister Imran Khan on Thursday announced that the Tarbela Dam has been filled to its maximum capacity, despite unfavourable weather conditions in the country.

The premier took to his official Twitter handle to announce that the dam had been filled completely as of yesterday.

“This is a good omen for agriculture and hydel generation”, he wrote.

PM Imran also expressed his appreciation for the teams at the Water and Power Development Authority and the Indus River System Authority for “improved water regulation”.

Last month, PM Imran was present at the groundbreaking ceremony for the Tarbela-5 expansion project which was aimed at protecting the dam against silting, help generate 1,530 MW of electricity and provide 1.34 billion units of power to the national grid.

At the ceremony, PM Imran claimed that his government had decided to build 10 dams within 10 years.

Read Movement of heavy machinery poses threat to Tarbela Dam

“We may face water shortage in the future and would be unable to cope with the needs of people and farmers unless we have storage,” he said.

Earlier this year, it was reported that the dam had lost 40% of its water storage capacity due to silting.

"As per Hydrographic Survey 2017, the water storage capacity of Tarbela dam has been reduced by over 40% due to silting in the reservoir," official sources disclosed to the media. They said since its operation the live and gross storage capacities of Tarbela reservoir had reduced by 37.524% and 40.58%, respectively.