Daily Times

PESHAWAR: The Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) Secretariat has said that a dam would be constructed to resolve water crises in the tribal region as the Federal Government approved Rs 676 million form the project in Shakai, South Waziristan Agency.

The government has formally launched construction work on ‘Shakai Dam’ in the war-ridden tribal region, aimed at developing the restive area and generating job opportunities for locals to discourage the trend of militancy.

A senior official of the local administration in South Waziristan, who wished to go unnamed because he wasn’t authorized to speak to media, said the first-ever water reservoir is being built in Shakai, a scenic valley in the area where Pakistani military and then Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan commander Naik Muhammad Wazir inked a peace deal on April 24, 2004.

Sources in the FATA Secretariat told Daily Times that the proposed dam will have the capacity to store 120,000 cubic feet of water. The dam will help the people and land of Waziristan. Agriculture would grow and people will find new art of feeding their families. The sources added that the government was committed to change the situation of Fata and its adjoining areas by mare participation of development and improving the law and order situation.

Clean drinking water will also be provided to the people of Shakai and nearby areas from the dam. The sources said however that deal appeared unraveled after Naik Muhammad was killed in a US drone strike on June 17, 2004.

The official at the local administration said, “It was under government’s consideration for years to construct a dam in the Shakai valley. However, the plan could not be materialized as the area was not safe for such kind of construction,” he maintained.

The dam, he said, would help irrigate a large area and provide potable water to thousands of families. As the military, the official said, had in the recent past declared parts of South Waziristan cleared of militants, the government has taken the maiden big step to develop the region by building a dam.