Pakistan to establish new security force for protection of Wapda dams

Pakistan’s federal cabinet on Thursday approved the establishment of a special security force to protect major dams and hydropower projects across Pakistan.

According to a statement from the Prime Minister’s Office, the meeting, chaired by the prime minister, granted in-principle approval for legislation to create the force under the Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda).

Meanwhile, Wapda reported that Mangla Dam, the country’s largest reservoir by storage capacity, reached its maximum conservation level of 1,242 feet on Thursday, storing 7.277 million acre-feet (MAF) of water. With this development, all three main reservoirs — Tarbela, Mangla, and Chashma — are now filled to their maximum levels, collectively holding 13.316 MAF of live storage.

Tarbela reached its full capacity of 1,550 feet on August 21, followed by Chashma Lake at 649 feet above mean sea level, and now Mangla has also achieved its maximum level. 

Mangla Dam, completed in 1967, has played a key role in irrigation, flood mitigation, and hydropower generation. Its live storage capacity decreased from 5.88 MAF to 4.6 MAF by 2004 due to sedimentation, prompting Wapda’s Mangla Dam Raising Project, which restored and increased capacity to 7.5 MAF.

Originally designed to generate 1,000 megawatts (MW) of electricity, the dam is currently undergoing refurbishment under the Mangla Refurbishment Project, which aims to increase its generation capacity to 1,310 MW.