Tarbela-5 Inquiry Holds WAPDA, Contractor and Consultant Responsible for Cofferdam Collapse

A government-constituted inquiry committee has found all three key parties — WAPDA (the Water and Power Development Authority), the appointed contractor, and the supervising consultant — responsible for the cofferdam collapse at the 1,530-megawatt Tarbela-5 Extension Hydropower Project, citing unauthorised post-contract design changes as a primary cause of the August 2025 structural failure. The collapse has driven total project costs from Rs82 billion to Rs317 billion — a 285 per cent escalation — and pushed the completion date from 2026 to end-June 2028.

What the Inquiry Found

The three-member independent inquiry committee, chaired by Federal Flood Commission chairman and the government's chief engineering adviser Ather Hameed, examined the chain of decisions that preceded the collapse. Membership also included a monitoring director and a contract management specialist from the Ministry of Water Resources. The committee's 15-page report, seen by Dawn, identified contractual violations at every level of the project hierarchy.

• The contractor submitted a proposal to change the cofferdam design, an action that was contractually prohibited.
• The consultant (engineer) conditionally accepted a design with known technical deficiencies without ensuring compliance.
• The employer (WAPDA) approved the change when construction was nearly complete, without questioning its contractual validity or the unresolved technical shortcomings.

The committee's finding was unambiguous: