China to speed up construction of dam in Pakistan: Report

By Berk Kutay Gokmen

ISTANBUL (AA) - China will fast track the construction of the Mohmand Dam in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, the South China Morning Post reported Monday.

The dam is designed for power generation, flood control, irrigation and water supply. It will produce 800 megawatts (MW) of hydropower and provide 1.14 billion liters (301 million gallons) of drinking water daily to Peshawar, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's capital.

The state-owned China Energy Engineering Corporation has been working on the Mohmand Hydropower Project since 2019, with its completion scheduled next year.

A recent report by Chinese state broadcaster CCTV said that concrete filling on the dam has begun, marking “a critical construction milestone and a phase of accelerated development for this national flagship project of Pakistan.”

The statement came after India unilaterally suspended the decades-old Indus Waters Treaty with Pakistan following a deadly militant attack on tourists in Pahalgam, Indian-administered Kashmir on April 22 that killed 26 people.

The military escalation between the two archrivals began on the night of May 6 when New Delhi fired missiles inside Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir, hitting what it said were "nine terror locations" and triggering retaliation on May 10 by Islamabad, which hit 26 Indian military targets inside its eastern neighbor as well as in Indian-administered Kashmir.

However, the US mediated a ceasefire between the two, which remains in effect, and the two rival militaries decided to continue “confidence-building measures to reduce alertness levels.”

New Delhi, however, has said that Kashmir was a bilateral issue with Islamabad and that any talks with Pakistan should include only “terror” and issues related to Pakistan-administered Kashmir.