In support of large dams

In June 2018, in my presentation to the Supreme Court before Justice Saqib Nisar, I explained the situation of the water power sector and the impediments in its development over the last four decades. I pointed out that we had 87 hydroelectric projects in hand and that the Bhasha Dam with 4500 MW generation was the best project which should have been started 36 years ago. The other very good project was Mohmand Dam.

It was after my presentation that the then Chief Justice started campaigning for Diamer-Bhasha and Mohmand Dam. Prime Minister Imran Khan gave his support to this venture. He inaugurated the Mohmand Dam in May 2019 and inspected the construction of the Diamer-Bhasha Dam after the contract for its construction was signed on May 13, 2020. This is of great satisfaction to me since I had made it my mission since 1975 to push for more dams in the country.

Ghulam Faruque, the chairman of the Pakistan Industrial Development Corporation (PIDC), had set up the Power Development Section at PIDC. We were then a small group of engineers and this led to the establishment of West Pakistan’s Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA) for the integrated and multipurpose development of water power resources.

The authority successfully completed major dams and hydroelectric projects as well as other projects including salinity and water logging. In those 18 years from 1958 to 1976, we in WAPDA had completed $3.5 billion worth of projects. WAPDA was then a world class organisation. This was one of the major reasons that Pakistan was considered to be a star developing country at the time.

In 1975, when the Tarbela Dam project was nearing completion we arranged a high-level conference on the role of hydroelectric resources in the development of Pakistan. This conference was chaired by the minister for water and power and attended by 200 electrical and civil engineers including WAPDA officials and concerned federal secretaries.

In my keynote paper I had given two recommendations which were accepted by the conference: since Tarbela was nearing completion we should urgently take up major hydroelectric projects on the Indus and to determine which sites and in what order the projects on the Indus should be undertaken; and a ranking study to be done by a reputable foreign consulting company.

Action on these decisions was delayed because during General Zia’s martial law, starting in 1977, economic and social development was not a priority. WAPDA’s three retired general chairmen for the next 15 years could build the hydroelectric projects. Kickbacks could only be had by placing orders for thermal power stations; hence only thermal power stations were built for over four decades.

Despite this, the 1975 high-level decision of conducting the feasibility studies on the Indus sites and the ranking was carried out by the reputable Montréal Engineering Company between the years 1981 to 1984. They ranked eight projects on the Indus and ranked Bhasha the best project technically and economically, noting that it would displace the least number of people.

As a member of the Planning Commission’s Energy Working Group in1991-92, I presented a programme of 34 large and medium hydroelectric projects and hundreds of small ones.

These projects were taken up in year 2000 by WAPDA’s member water Sardar Tariq in the programme for water power development and they called it WAPDA’s Vision 2025. They got it approved by the chief executive and started work on refining feasibility studies of a large number of projects.

Pakistan is blessed with a large hydroelectric potential and should not ignore it. It has been my life-long mission to push for hydroelectric development. I have stressed this necessity in various conferences and symposiums and will continue to do so.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 26^th, 2020.

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