WAPDA building 10 water and hydropower projects

Schemes will add 11.7 MAF of water, 9,000 MW of power

FAISALABAD:

The Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) is constructing 10 projects in water and hydropower sectors under the ‘Decade of Dams’ vision which will achieve completion in a phase-wise manner from 2023 to 2029, said Wapda Chairman Muzammil Hussain.

Speaking at the University of Agriculture, Faisalabad on Friday, the official reaffirmed the authority’s commitment to water, food and energy security in the country.

He revealed that the schemes under development include five dams, three hydropower projects, one canal and one water supply system.

Upon their completion, the gross water storage capacity in Pakistan would increase to 24 million acre feet (MAF) from 13 million acre feet resulting in an addition of 11.7 million acre feet which will be sufficient to irrigate another 1.6 million acres of land, he said.

In addition, 950 million gallons of water per day would be made available for drinking purposes for people of Karachi and Peshawar.

The hydel generation capacity would be doubled to 18,000 megawatt from 9,000 megawatt at present.

The projects under development would also provide around 35,000 job opportunities, he said.

Talking about the grim water situation, the authority chairman said that the per capita water availability in Pakistan had declined from 5,650 cubic meter in 1951 to an alarming level of 908 cubic meter per annum at present, pushing country to the stage of water scarcity.

Pakistan possessed the capacity to store just 10% of its annual river flows against the world’s average of 40%, he said.

Instead of increasing water storage capacity, Pakistan had lost about one-fourth storage of the dams, he lamented.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 16^th, 2021.

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