Publication details

• Sunday | 01 Jan, 1995
• Mohammad Zubair Khan
• Working Papers
• 32

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Mohammad Zubair Khan 1995 Abstract The Ghazi-Barotha Project as currently planned will cut off almost the entire downstream water below the proposed barrage for seven months during the year, reducing the flow to less than three per cent of the current flow in the river during the low-flow season. This will have devastating effect on the economic, social and environmental life of the region with severe social and political repercussions. The Project will completely destroy a 120 square kilometre pristine natural wilderness downstream of the barrage and upset the ecosystem along the Indus. With only minor modifications in the operational design of the project and a marginal impact on the power generating capacity, large gains can be achieved in downstream environmental, natural resource and social objectives.  The modifications will require that the minimum assured water releases from the barrage during the low-flow season do not fall below 425 cumecs on average during any 10-day period (the lowest current flow in January) and contain some additional water in the dry and hot months of the low-flow season.