Khanpur Dam

Khanpur Dam is a dam located on the Haro River near the town of Khanpur, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly NWFP), Pakistan, about 25 miles (40 km) from Islamabad, Pakistan. It forms Khanpur Lake, a reservoir which supplies drinking water to Islamabad and Rawalpindi and irrigation water to many of the agricultural and industrial areas surrounding the cities.

The dam was completed in 1983 after a 15 year construction period believed to have cost Rs. 1,352 million. It is 167 feet (51 m) high and stores 110,000 acre feet (140,000,000 m³) of water.

The adjoining Khanpur Lake is also the venue for Sarhad Tourism Corporation's annual airborne and waterborne sports gala. The event, termed as the 'biggest' in Pakistan was scheduled to take place between 9th and 11th April 2010.

History

The dam was built by Ayub Khan , Former President of Pakistan . The dam was believed by many to be a way for Ayub Khan to settle political scores with the feudal chief of Gakhars Raja Erij Zaman Khan.

The forefathers of local Gakhars Rajas were given much of the local land by the British during the nineteenth century. The British rewarded the Gakhhars for their cooperation in defeating the Sikhs, but deprived the local Awan and other farmers of their land. When the decision to build Khanpur Dam was made, the Rajas wanted to receive the compensation for all the land, thus depriving all the local inhabitants of their land-rights. The local residents desperately wanted to...
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