Applications of Tarbela Dam Reservoir (TDR) Silt as a Pozzolan

Deposition of silt in Tarbela Dam (TD) reservoir has become a major problem. Serious implications may result from silt deposition in the reservoir. Storage capacity of the reservoir has significantly been reduced and the chances of overflowing in critical situations like flooding have increased. Also due to low storing capacity the whole country is suffering from terrible power deficit throughout the year. Also the time to time, accidental, exclusion of silt through the penstocks and turbines causes serious damage to them. The idea of this project was to develop a sellable industrial product from this silt, out of several possible products listed by a past research project by Kashif and Idrees titled "Engineering Applications of Silt from TDR". We chose to do this project to sort out the application of silt as a pozzolan and as a major cement constituent. As dredging pumping or flushing silt from the reservoir is very costly or intensively environmentally hazardous, we believe that making this silt a revenue generating source will somewhat fulfill this cost and above all will become a productive source of sustainable improvement of economy by producing job opportunities.