Tanda Dam or Tanda Lake is a small dam and also a lake view park located in the Kohat District of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan.[1] The dam supplies water for irrigation to Jurma, Tappi, Baqizai, Dhoda, Shahpur and many other villages by means of canals from Tanda Lake.
It became operational on 17 July, 1967, though it was inaugurated by the then president Ayub Khan in 1962.[2] Covering an area of 405ha,[3] Tanda Dam had the initial capacity to store 65,000 acre feet of water and provide a perennial supply of 260 cusecs of water for irrigation.
Tanda Lake is a protected site under the Ramsar Convention,[4] an international treaty for the conservation and sustainable utilization of wetlands. It was included as a Ramsar site on 23 July, 1976. The lake is home to migratory birds from Siberia and the Caspian during winter.[5]
See main article: Tanda Dam boat disaster. On 29 January, 2023, 49 children and two adults drowned when their boat capsized on the dam. The boat they were travelling on was carrying people on a daytrip from a local madrassa when it overturned.[6] [7]