Heavy discharge of water, no loss of life, WAPDA and civil administration officials reach the site.
Second major incident in one year. Heavy financial loss. Work on the project suspended.
by Javed Iqbal Khan – From Tarbela Ghazi | 9 Nov 2026
At the intake area of the 5th Extension T-5 Project of Tarbela Dam, Pakistan’s largest dam located in Tehsil Ghazi, Haripur, safety girders broke, causing a sudden heavy quantity of water to fill the tunnel and a heavy discharge of water to begin, creating an emergency situation.
Fortunately, the foreign and Pakistani staff of the Chinese construction firm were removed from there in time, which saved precious lives. Due to this sudden accident on , an emergency situation arose and rumours on social media and baseless news of the breaking of Tarbela Dam created concern among the public across the country.
Deputy Commissioner Haripur Waseem Ahmed and senior WAPDA officials reached the spot, reviewed the situation and issued necessary instructions.
This is the second major accident of the T-5 Project during one year. During the 2025 flood season, water released from the service spillways broke the temporary safety bund, due to which the under-construction area of the powerhouse was submerged in water.
Work on the project has been suspended for an indefinite period and it is feared that due to two accidents within one year, heavy financial loss may occur and the project may suffer further delay.
According to WAPDA officials, the water discharged from the tunnel, the quantity of which could be more than 150,000 cusecs, may flow into the river for up to 24 hours.
Therefore, the general public should stay away from the river and take precautions.
Deputy Commissioner Haripur Waseem Ahmed said that the situation is fully under control and there is no truth in the news of the breaking of Tarbela Dam.
The Tarbela Fifth Extension (T-5) Project, one of Pakistan’s most important hydropower projects, has once again run into difficulties. Due to the breaking of the safety bund, a large quantity of water entered Tunnel No. 5 on Monday, after which the ongoing construction work on the project has been stopped for an indefinite period.
After the incident, the district administration has ordered an investigation. The high-level inquiry will determine why the safety bund broke, whether there was any weakness in its construction or whether the situation arose due to some technical fault. The decision to restart work on the project will be taken after the investigation report comes to light.
How Important is the T-5 Project for Pakistan?
The Tarbela Fifth Extension Hydropower Project is a major energy project of WAPDA, the objective of which is to install three generating units on Tunnel No. 5 of Tarbela Dam. The generation capacity of each unit will be 510 MW, thus a total of 1,530 MW of electricity is expected to be added to the national system through the project.WAPDA awarded a $354.6 million contract for civil works to China’s Power Construction Corporation in May 2021.
After completion of the project, the installed power generation capacity of Tarbela Dam is expected to increase from 4,888 MW to 6,418 MW, while on average 1.347 billion units of additional electricity will be generated annually.
History of Delay in the Project
The T-5 Project has already suffered delay due to several reasons. Initially, this project to be completed in five years was now targeted to be completed by September 2027.
