A mass of weak rock gave way on Monday, November 9, 2026, during excavation of the connecting tunnel for the second platform of the Tarbela T-5 hydropower project in Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, and water from the intake pond entered the tunnel and the area of the powerhouse under construction. The Water and Power Development Authority of Pakistan (WAPDA) reported that all workers were evacuated with no injuries.
The incident was reported by Al Jazeera as the partial collapse of the Tarbela dam. WAPDA rejected those reports: according to the authority, the main tunnel, the powerhouse under construction, the tailrace and the substation suffered no damage, and a district official said there is no threat of flooding downstream, according to Dawn. Tarbela is Pakistan's largest earth-fill dam and a pillar of its power system. For Mexico the case is relevant because its power mix depends in part on hydropower plants and multipurpose dams that operate near high-demand areas, and because large-scale projects concentrate engineering risks that are managed with excavation protocols and geotechnical monitoring.
The T-5 project adds 1,530 megawatts and will raise Tarbela's capacity from 4,888 to 6,418 installed megawatts. Its cost rose from 82,000 million rupees to about 317,000 million, and completion had been scheduled for June 2028, according to Dawn. After the collapse an emergency was declared, the works were suspended and WAPDA began draining the powerhouse. Senior WAPDA officials, the project engineer and the contractor are assessing the situation, and the authority has not announced a restart date. The deputy commissioner of Swabi, Nasarullah Khan, asked the public to avoid bathing, swimming or boating in the Indus River because of the additional water release.
The damage assessment will define the schedule of a project that had already accumulated delays and a documented cost overrun. Geotechnical incidents in underground works tend to lead to schedule reviews, a point that any water infrastructure portfolio tracks. The figure to watch is the ongoing assessment and the date on which WAPDA restarts excavation of the tunnel.
This article was drafted with the assistance of artificial intelligence from verified sources and reviewed by a human editor before publication.