'Per capita water availability reduces to alarming figure'

Per capita water availability in Pakistan reduced to an alarming figure of 1070 cubic meter in 2007 while the country has lost the storage capacity equivalent to 5.13 MAF due to silting in the reservoirs of Tarbela, Mangla and Chashma.
This was revealed by General Manager (Technical Services),Wapda, Dr Izhar-ul-Haq while talking to the 3rd Senior Management Course delegation of the National Management College, here on Thursday. Izhar-ul-Haq briefed the delegation about the hydropower and water sectors and said that Pakistan has the potential of generating more than 54,000 MW low-cost hydropower electricity.
To cope with the increasing needs in water as well as power sector, the constructions of large dams have become all the more inevitable, he added. Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda), member power, Fazal Ahmed Khan told the delegation that Wapda's receivables have swelled to Rs 187.753 billion including a sum of Rs 72.060 owed by Fata and Rs 38.775 billion by KESC.
Moreover, he said that the system losses were reduced to 20.6 per cent till the end of April during the current fiscal year and the numbers of consumers are likely to reach 18 million by the end of June 2008.
In order to bridge the gap between generation and consumption, the Federal government, had approved several projects of power generation to be executed on fast track basis and additional 2,200 MW electricity would be made available to the national grid within one year.
He said that all resources are being tapped with a view to enhance power generation capacity in the country. Dilating upon the various measures, he apprised the delegation that the contracts for setting up of 425 MW Nandipur and 525 MW Chichoki Mallian thermal power projects have already been signed.
The two projects, being executed in public sector, are expected to be completed in 2010 and 2011 respectively. Besides, 1,800 MW electricity will also be added to the national grid through private sector in 2008-10, he further said. Wapda Member (Finance) Chaudhry Abdul Qadeer and the senior officers of Wapda were also present on the occasion.