Construction of major dams: government decides to formally launch campaign

The government has decided to formally launch a campaign for constructing major dams as the concerned authorities have agreed to go slow on "controversial" Kalabagh dam, sources told Business Recorder on Thursday.
"The formal launch of the campaign will help the government in procuring foreign and local funding for the dams, whose construction is must to save the country from becoming water-scarce country," the sources said.
The construction of the dams has already been announced by the previous government, but the proposals are in very rough form and the government finds it difficult to attract international donors to provide funding, sources said.
Pakistan wants to build Diamer Basha, Kalabagh, Akhori, Munda and Kurram Tangi dams by 2016. This was a plan that was prepared by the previous government. But very little has been done on implementing these projects and most of the allocation made in the PSDPs in the last two years or so remained unspent.
"The present government, which is facing severe problems in meeting the power demands, will take up all these projects with donors after formal launch, which is likely to be announced sometime this month," the sources said.
The delay on construction of Basha Dam project is escalating the project cost, as federal government has not utilised any money. The government had allocated Rs 2.6 billion for the land acquisition of Basha dam under current financial year''s Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP).
Official said that Diamer Bhasha consultants have estimated tentative project cost of $8.505 billion at present against the earlier projected cost of $6.5 billion in 2005. This cost may further escalate due to delay in land acquisition of dam.
Government also allocated as many as Rs 10 billion in PSDP 2007-08 for the land acquisition of five big dams including Kalabagh, Munda, Krum Tungi dams. But the spending remained negligible, the sources said.
The government, according to the sources, would form dam companies for each project to generate funds for their construction, sources said. The donors are not coming forward to fund these projects for there are still issues of concerns, which need to be removed before seeking of funds. According to the sources, the differences of the provinces on Kalabagh dam are known to all.
There are some reservations of the NWFP on Akhori dam. But, these reservations can easily be removed if the government showed commitment, the sources said. There is almost a complete consensus on construction of Basha dam and the government has already asked the donors to support the government in constructing the project.