Claim: A viral video shows a man breaking a concrete structure at Tarbela Dam with a kick, allegedly exposing poor construction linked to the 9 November incident.
Fact: The video circulated online as early as 3 August 2026, more than three months before the Tarbela incident. The earlier Facebook post described the footage as showing a roadside safety wall in Kohistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
A video shared on Facebook by a page called “PTI World Today” claims to show poor construction at Tarbela Dam following an incident at its fifth extension project (T-5) on 9 November.
The video shows a man kicking a concrete structure, causing pieces of it to break away. Its caption identifies the location as “Tarbela Dam T-5” and claims, “Protective structure of the Dam breaks with a kick, resulting in today[‘s] incident.”
Screenshot of a Facebook reel shared by PTI World Today, falsely linking an old video to the 9 November incident at Tarbela Dam.
What happened at Tarbela Dam on 9 November?
The Tarbela 5th Extension Hydropower Project (T-5) is an under-construction project aimed at increasing electricity generation at Tarbela Dam in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Developed by the Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA), the project is designed to add 1,530 megawatts (MW) of electricity generation capacity through three units of 510MW each.
On 9 November 2026, a rock mass collapsed during excavation work on a connecting tunnel at the T-5 construction site, allowing water from an intake pit to enter the tunnel and under-construction powerhouse area. According to WAPDA, construction activities were suspended, and all workers were safely evacuated, with no injuries or deaths reported. The authority also rejected reports that the project’s main tunnel had collapsed, clarifying that the main tunnel and other critical structures had not sustained damage.
Following the incident, WAPDA Chairman Lieutenant General (retired) Muhammad Saeed visited the site to review the situation. According to a statement issued on 10 November, the project’s consultants, contractor, and WAPDA teams maintained that there was no threat to the integrity of the main dam or its critical structures. The chairman ordered a departmental inquiry and directed the relevant teams to investigate the incident and implement remedial measures.
Fact or Fiction?
Video circulated months before Tarbela incident
A search on Google Lens, using keyframes from the viral video, traced the footage to an earlier Facebook reel shared by “Pakistan Connect” on 3 August 2026, more than three months before the incident at Tarbela’s T-5 project. The reel contains the same footage of a man kicking a concrete structure, causing pieces of it to break away.
The caption of the earlier post described the footage as showing a road and its safety walls in Kohistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, raising concerns about the quality of construction work. It made no mention of Tarbela Dam. A comparison of the August and November videos shows the same man, concrete structure, and surrounding landscape, confirming that the footage is identical.
Comparison of the viral video falsely linked to Tarbela Dam (left) and an earlier version shared by Pakistan Connect on 3 August 2026 (right), showing the same footage.
Although Soch Fact Check could not independently verify the exact location where the video was recorded, its appearance on Facebook on 3 August establishes that it predates the Tarbela incident on 9 November 2026. Therefore, the footage cannot show damage caused during that incident or serve as evidence that poor construction at the T-5 project was responsible for the collapse.
Virality
Soch Fact Check identified 18 posts sharing the claim across social media platforms, including 17 on Facebook and one on Instagram.
Conclusion: Soch Fact Check found the claim that a viral video exposes poor construction at Tarbela Dam following the 9 November 2026 incident to be false. The footage circulated as early as 3 August 2026 and was described as showing a roadside safety wall in Kohistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.The video therefore does not document the November incident at Tarbela’s T-5 project and cannot be used as evidence of its caus
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