Pakistan

Government to deal with water, power crisis

Measures being taken to address water and electricity shortages.

Express March 12, 2011

LAHORE:

In order to stabilise the economy and facilitate social development in the country, the government is committed to resolving issues faced by water and power sectors, according to Federal Minister for Water and Power Syed Naveed Qamar.

Addressing a meeting at the Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) house on Saturday, Qamar said that both the water and power sectors are vital for socio-economic development and require effective execution of projects.

He said the ministry would help Wapda and the Pakistan Electric Power Company (Pepco) in overcoming hurdles in implementing their projects and that the government is taking all possible measures to address the electricity crisis.

WAPDA Chairman Shakil Durrani said his company is focused on optimal utilisation of water and hydropower resources to cope with the increasing demand of water and electricity.

Durrani added that five dams, three mega canals, five hydropower projects and two drainage schemes were being executed under ‘Vision 2025’. He said that work on Diamer-Bhasha Dam, the largest project in the country’s history, would start soon.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 13^th, 2011.

COMMENTS (2)

Mahmood Ahmad | 13 years ago | Reply Water sector like energy is going through a crisis in Pakistan. Water demand is growing far more than available supply. Past efforts in sixties and seventies have focused more in enhancing supply through engineering solutions by creating mega irrigation projects, this continue to be the mindset. The difference is that now mobilizing financing is hard to come and would be costly to our future generation who are to pay. The point is that it would be difficult to continue supply enhancement policies on the scale witnessed in the past simply due to the fact most viable sites have been used( Kalabagh a lost opportunity) , high cost of developing additional cubic meter of water and may be due to much debated negative externality of not allocating enough water for preserving downstream environment. Water demand management is still low on the agenda of our policy makers, as trade off’s have not been studied well enough in spite of large planned investment. We will learn the hard way, as in the energy sector, the users are increasingly expected to pay international price for scarce resource, no such vision exit for water sector. As an example, my recent work in Sindh for ADB revealed that Irrigation cost in 1926 was 45% of overall farmer cost structure compared to less than 1% today. If we start increasing price of water towards its economic value, the cultivation of sugarcane and to some extend rice would be uneconomical. This a food for thought for decision makers that supply enhancement strategy is a long term option, the immediate need is to adopt demand management policies which are feasible and carry higher rate of return, lets tell tax payers the true picture, not to repeat the misleading promises made in the energy sector. Dr. Mahmood Ahmad International expert on water policy based in Islamabad

masood Ali | 13 years ago | Reply this government is bullying us as usual please do not invest any money in pakistan till the security improves

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