During the five spells of monsoon from June 15 to August 25 in Balochistan this year, 120 dams collapsed resulting in massive loss of life and property. The Balochistan government decided to conduct an inquiry from CMIT team, the inspection team has completed its investigation in 45 days and sent the report to the Chief Secretary. The report states that during the recent monsoon, 27 dams were completely collapsed while 93 were partially damaged mainly because the spillways were affected. Among the 27 dams that were completely damaged, 12 were active dams while 15 were part of under-construction and ongoing development schemes. The total damages cost is estimated at 5 billion rupees.
The report further states that most of the collapsed dams in the province were poorly constructed, Machka Dam at Qila Abdullah and Sher Jan Cuddy Dam at Loralai were the worst examples of poor construction, most of the collapsed dams had technical flaws. The spillways of most of the dams were not properly constructed, the construction of the dams under the Hundred Dams project in Qila Abdullah was very poor, most of the dam’s location was chosen incorrectly.
Along with this, the warnings of climate change in the last ten years have not been taken into account, CMIT has blamed the officials and consultants of the Irrigation Department of Balochistan for the dams’ collapse. In the report, it has been suggested that the construction of future dams in the province should be done by the renowned construction companies of the country, while instead of hundreds of small dams, plans should be prepared to build a few large and standard dams.
According to the inquiry report, the details of the 10 most rain affected districts of Balochistan where 27 dams collapsed. 10 dams in Qila Abdullah, 03 in Qila Saifullah, 02 in Zhob, 02 in Musa Khel, 02 in Quetta, 02 in Pishin, 02 in Kuchi, 02 in Ziarat, 01 in Turbat, 01 in Loralai.
It has been two months since the chief minister’s inspection team sent the report of collapsed dams to the chief secretary of Balochistan, but no strict action has been taken against the responsible parties, while the ruling and opposition parties in the province also demanded that the guilty government officials should be punished severely.
Nasrullah Zairy, MPA of the Pashtun Khwan Milli Awami Party, said that all those dams which are collapsed or had faults in them, the responsibility goes to the ex-minister, superintending engineer and chief engineer.
Ruling party MPA Noor Mohammad Domar said that action should be taken against those who were contractors and officers at the time of construction, that this is not booty.
In the CMIT report, bad construction materials and selection of dam sites on political grounds and corruption in the construction are the main reasons for the dams’ collapse. The officials and consultants of the Irrigation Department are totally responsible for the collapse of most of the dams, the provincial government also claimed that the CMIT report will be implemented and action will be taken against the wrongdoers but no one knows when the inquiry/action will be started actually.
Minister CN&W Sardar Abdul Rahman Khetran said that action will be taken against those wrongdoers and the dams will be restored phase wise.
The public circles of the province said that fifty percent of the funds allocated for development works in the province are given in taxes and kickbacks, it needs to strict action against the such mafia.
The officials of the contractor’s association who built those dams have alleged that if half of the money set aside for the construction of dams is given for kickbacks and taxes, how can quality and strong dams be built?
Pervez Khan Mandukhel, Secretary of Information of the Contractor Association, said that we give ten percent kickback to the department, fifteen percent to the minister, twelve percent then goes to the commission again, fourteen percent becomes the minister’s acceptance, regional taxes and commission. 49 to 50% amount will go into overheads then how dams will be constructed according to the SOPs.