ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: The federal government is planning to increase the capacity of water storage of Simly Dam to fulfill the requirement of the residents of the Federal Capital.
“The useable storage capacity of Simly Dam has been decreased by 7 percent and the government was taking several steps to address the issue,” sources in the Ministry of Interior told the state-run news agency in Islamabad.
Source said that the government is adopting watershed management practices in the catchment area including plantation of trees, increasing vegetative cover and construction of check dams to overcome the issue.
In reply to a question, they said that the capacity of water storage of Simly Dam is decreasing due to silting. They said that sedimentation silting in impounded reservoirs is a natural phenomenon which cannot be stopped completely.
They said that as far as the Rawal and Khanpur Dams are concerned, they are operated and maintained by the Small Dams Organization, Irrigation Department government of Punjab and Water and Power Development Authority respectively.