Abstract:
Due to tremendous increase in population, water
requirement for agricultural as well as domestic, industrial use is
on a rise. Pakistan is already deficit of water, because as a result
of Indus Basin Water Treaty (1960) we had to leave 16 MAF of our
share from three Eastern Rivers i.e. (Sutlej, Ravi and Beas) and
had to depend only on three Western Rivers i.e. (Jehlum, Chenab
and Sindh). To meet the ever increasing demand of water we had
to construct number of dams and other hydraulic infrastructure
which was an expensive solution.
Since these rivers carry a lot of silt load so capacity of
reservoirs constructed on them is on decrease rapidly for example
Mangla has already lost 20 % of its storage capacity and if it is
silted up in same manner, by 2086 its capacity will be left 30 %,
and Tarbela has already lost 30 % of its storage capacity, by 2056
it will be left with 20 % storage capacity. This is the critical time for
some serious step to be taken. Desilting of dams was an option
but conventional methods being too costly (approx double the cost
of original project) or impracticable
