MITHI: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has inaugurated the Kalidas Small Dam in Nagarparkar with a storage capacity of 1,012.3 acre-feet constructed at the cost of Rs333 million.
Addressing the inauguration ceremony, the chief minister said that the Small Dams Project in Nagarparkar was launched for the construction of 42 small dams, out of which 23 dams have been completed, while the construction of the remaining eleven dams was in progress and would be completed in July 2022.
He said that before the construction of small dams, there was an acute shortage of water, therefore people used to migrate along with their cattle from Nagarparkar to the barrage areas in search of their livelihood and used to face immense hardship including loss of cattle.
“Now after completion of 23 small dams, the large quantity of rainwater is being stored for the people their animals, agriculture and for the wildlife for the whole year,” he said.
He said that the completion of small dams has started providing sufficient benefits to the people of the area. He said the residents of over 45 to 50 villages were using water for their livestock and irrigated 45,000 barren lands. He added that after completion of the project about 85000 acres of the agriculture land would be cultivated and 87 villages would have the facility to use dam water.
The Kalidas Dam has been constructed on Ghordharo Nai located at a distance of one kilometre in the west of Nagarparkar. CM Sindh said the dam has proved beneficial for the people of the town and adjoining areas.
The dam is a storage facility and three months have passed since the last rainfall but still 13 feet of water is available against a 15 feet maximum depth. The water would remain available in the dam for the whole year till the next monsoon season.
The height of the dam is 15 feet and width of its spillway has been kept at 90 feet. The catchment is spread over eight square kilometers. Its maximum discharge would be 21,000 cusecs. The catchment area of all the 42 small dams is spread over 400 square kilometre which receive average 12 inch rainfall and provides a total of 111,000 acre-feet water.
The chief minister said these dams would irrigate 85,000 acres of land and provide drinking water to 87 villages and a population of 73,000 people would take benefit from the entire project.
