To dam or not to dam? Pakistan experts ponder flood strategy

[AZADPAKISTAN2009]

Well the , concepts are there

Example images I posted were from Japan
To avoid floodings on typhoon season, the city of Saitama in Japan features an impressive storm sewer system. Its construction started in 1992, and its composed by giant concrete silos (65m tall, 32m wide) connected by 6.4km of underground tunnels 50m below the surface. It also has a giant tank: 25.4m tall, 177m long and 78 wide, with 59 concrete columns.

This solution is probbaly if we are trying to fix flooding for 1 city from rain

Other options are of course construction of dams

Well most obvious , build a dam , well some people argued well Chinab river , is flat area and there is no suitable section for DAM , well government can still construct following

a) Cannals
b) Under ground outlet of war (As shown in images) , done in Tokyo or Europe

When you create underwater channels, you are still keeping the land above in fertile Punjab for farming and moving water underground to Baluchistan artificial lake

We have every thing for this action

Tremendous amount of real estate and land in Baluchistan for 2-3 Artificial Lakes for emergency
Also we have option to construct a Dam at least on River Indus Side

These are projects that do not involve great amount of Technology , you just need to have proper Engineers working on project and its basic concrete and structure layout


Quite possible to relay water to regions

• Barkhan (Region #2), , excess water from Chennab
• Dera Bugti (Region#5) , excess rain water from Chennab
• Musakhel (Region #20) , excess rain water from Indust River

We are taking about creation of under water passage covering 500 km a one time cost but it will yeild drinkable water in Balouchistan , and save property from flood in Punjab and Sindh

Due to the 500 km distance between Lahore etc and closest Baluchistan region it may not work, world record for train tunnel is 150 km underground etc so this kind of project would be 5 times as great but you are also fixing the problem for 100 years

If a Project of that magnitude is undertaken it will certainly be a mega project


Otherwise we can do what Japan did , for 1 city at least fix its rain problems in Sitama
because that city dealt with Typhoons yearly basis similar to how we deal with Moonsoon rain
just that our scoop is multi city due to flow of a river rise as well

 

[Al Bhatti]

September 21, 2014

Pakistan authorities in hot water over dams
Experts ponder flood strategy as dams and barrages fail to prevent disaster four years running

Energy-starved Pakistan relies on a multitude of dams and barrages to prevent Himalayan rivers from flooding and help meet its power needs, but their failure to prevent disaster four years running is making some experts question their utility.

Every year since 2010, which saw the worst floods in Pakistan’s history, the country has experienced catastrophic inundations that kill hundreds and wipe out millions of acres of prime farmland, harming the heavily agrarian economy.

Starting when the country was still a part of British-ruled India, engineers embarked upon ambitious projects to harness the water that flows from Kashmir through the length of the country to the Arabian Sea.

Today, Pakistan is home to the biggest earth-filled dam in the world at Tarbela, just north of Islamabad, and more than 150 others classed as “large”.

With more than 30 per cent of its power coming from hydro-electric sources, such structures are also crucial to help alleviate a chronic energy crisis that has put a brake on industrial productivity.

But a campaign for non-structural measures to contain flooding is gradually gaining ground — with proponents arguing that man-made interventions can, counter-intuitively, exacerbate the floods.

There are two major arguments — the build up of sediment in a dam shortens its useful lifespan, while the slowing of rivers due to structures mean that silt accumulates, decreasing their capacity.

Kaisar Bengali, a career technocrat who advises the chief minister of Balochistan province, said: “Dams create floods, dams don’t prevent floods.

“When the floods occur, if you have a storage area you can store the water in that area. Dams have a reservoir so they create a lake. Barrages divert the water into canals. They don’t have a reservoir.

“But they don’t just block water, they block silt as well and as a result the river bed rises. So in 2010, the water that passed through the Indus was less that in 1976 yet it created more flooding because the river had risen 6-7 feet.”

A 2000 research paper commission by conservation group WWF that looked at various countries warned of similar consequences and further noted the drainage of wetlands as well as deforestation associated with dams led to a loss of natural sponges.

Decisions on whether to release water are also subject to opposing concerns — dam managers may seek to keep reservoirs full for energy generation, whereas an early release could lessen flood impacts.

Mushtaq Gaadi, a water activist and academic at Islamabad’s Quaid-e-Azam university, noted that some of this year’s worst flooding occurred in the Chenab river, where a key structure has lost significant discharge capacity due to the build-up of sediment.

“The most important and critical infrastructure at Chenab is Trimmu [barrage] which was constructed during the British era.

“Its discharge capacity has been drastically reduced. It was not capable of discharging more than 600,000 cusecs. Mainly due to the rising of the river bed level,” due to silting.

Dams and barrages are difficult and expensive to de-silt and maintain, forcing Pakistan to turn to help from multilateral lending agencies such as the World Bank and Asian Development Bank.

With the World Bank’s aid, Pakistan completed its renovation of the Taunsa barrage in central Punjab province in early 2010 at a cost of $144 million (Dh529 million) — only to see an embankment upstream of the structure catastrophically fail when the floods came in August.

This year, Pakistan was again forced to blow up protective dykes to divert flood waters away from cities to less-densely populated areas — which Gaadi said was another sign of a failing strategy.

Beyond their disposition to fail, dams are also responsible for luring people into harm’s way by creating a false sense of security in areas that are naturally fertile flood zones. Many of 2014’s almost 300 deaths could have been prevented had villagers not been living in such areas, said Gaadi.

Despite the noted shortcomings, the government believes that more, not fewer dams are the solution, and has vowed to press ahead with new projects — such as the Diamer-Bhasha Dam in northern Gilgit Baltistan, projected to cost some $14 billion.

Shafiq-ur-Rehman, an environmental sciences professor at the University of Peshawar, said it showed a lack of long-term planning.

“First we build dykes and spend millions of rupees on them and then we blow them up and drown people to save cities or other areas,” he said.


Pakistan authorities in hot water over dams | GulfNews.com

 

[Fracker]

First and cheapest way to start with, they need to extend all berags or hydero power. Atleast each berag should be capable of allowing atleast 1 million cusic water in river before links, and after links from 1.4 million to 2.0 million downstream. This is very cheap to start with an will allow whole un interrupted passage to sea. Meanwhile they can start with dams. Kala bagh should be least priority right now. They should put a dam on chenab, and kabul. There two rivers are massive and un tamed. Externsion of warsak dam may be equal to same terbella standard, and extension of marala two have two more link canals upstream into swan river (bridged on jehlum), and better dam.
3Rd phase they need flood controll lakes beside indus in sindh , kpk and baluchistan, 4-5 lakes will be good to start with.

Within the cities, they shoild redo whole severage system, Lahore can handle good enough rain, but cleansing is the issue. High hitting rain area like upper punjab, KPK, and Kashmir should have better severage system, and there should be awareness should be performed and people should start be hygine oriented people.

Later on, government can work into modern Tunnels for flood control and saving water, and divert to the area hit by less rain, like southern Punjab, interior sindh and Baluchistan.

Last they should continue working on 300 dams in chakri area, and 300 dams in KPK, tree growing should be encourage, our billion dollars forests are dieinng in KPK and upper Punjab, these are our only protection against land sliding, and we people of Pakistan has to save them, protect them and regrew. Government cant do everything, we need to work side by side government, and encourage.

Then they can build extra dams like kalabagh, and etc, frankly, they will protect some but not much.

Closing notes, Water is life, and rain is blessing from Allah, it is only us who make it a curse. Cleaning, hygine, recycle, saving forest, and regrowing trees are the onl. To go.. Agriculture will be one of the most profitable business in future.