| Namal Lake | |
| Location: | Namal Valley, Mianwali District, Punjab, Pakistan |
| Type: | Reservoir with gravity dam |
| Etymology: | Namal means priceless in English[1] |
| Pushpin Map: | Punjab Pakistan |
| Pushpin Map Caption: | Location in Punjab, Pakistan |
| Part Of: | Salt Range Wetlands Complex (SRWC)[2] |
| Catchment: | 164mi2[3] |
| Basin Countries: | Pakistan |
| Area: | 480ha |
| Volume: | 630000000ft3 (Average) 2100000000ft3 (Maximum)[4] |
| Cities: | Namal, Rikhi |
| Designation: | Game Reserve[5] |
| Date-Built: | 1913 |
Namal Lake (Urdu: نمل جھیل) is a man-made lake located near Rikhi, a village on one corner of the Namal valley in Mianwali District, Punjab, Pakistan. It was formed following the construction of Namal Dam in . Namal Dam is situated some 32km (20miles) from Mianwali city.
The lake has a surface area of 5.5km2.[6] There are mountains on its western and southern sides. On the other two sides are agricultural areas.[7] It serves as a picnic spot for tourists from nearby areas, and functions as a habitat for waterfowl, Russian ducks, and Siberian cranes that migrate to the area during the winter months.
In 1913, British engineers built a dam on Namal lake to address the scarcity of irrigation and drinking water for Mianwali city. But with the passage of time, construction of the Thal Canal and the installation of tube wells, squeezed up its utility of water up to some limit.
The gates of the dam are repaired by the irrigation department regularly but without enthusiasm. The hill torrents and rains fill the Namal Lake round the year. Due to a drought-like situation in the country, this lake dried up last year, which is the first incident of its kind in the last 100 years.[8]
The Namal Canal was opened in December 1913. It received the Namal water from a lake of dam constructed across a gorge canal between Namal and Musakhel. The tail of the canal was at Mianwali, where it conveyed water to lands in the Civil Station. The canal was included under schedule-1 of the Minor Canals Act of 1905 by Punjab Government notification No. 84, dated 9th June 1914.[9]