Chairman Water And Development Authority of Pakistan (Wapda) Shakil Durrani has said that Pakistan is facing acute shortage of water and there is a need of development of additional reservoirs as well as the need of increasing the storage capacity of water in the country.
He said that Wapda is planning to start projects of Rs 2 billion for increasing the storage capacity as well as controlling the water logging and salinity in Sindh from next year and such type of projects will also be initiated in the provinces of Punjab, Balochistan and NWFP.
He was talking to the reporters at the seminar on World Water Day 2010 organised by Pakistan Engineering Congress and Wapda on Monday. Durrani said that hydropower is still very low source of power generation in Pakistan, which costs Rs 1.30 per unit and the government is working on 32 small and big power projects for this purpose.
Earlier, speaking on the occasion Shakil Durrani said that there is a need of construction of big reservoirs and for this purpose Wapda has been executing many projects which includes Mangla Dam Raising Project of the capacity of 3 MAF, Gomal Zam 0.89 MAF and Kuram Tangi Dam 1.0 MAF.
He said that the big project of Dia Mir Basha Dam of the capacity of 6.4 MAF will be started next year and the acquisition of the land has been started for the construction of Basha Dam. He said Pakistan has 75 million acres of land suitable for agriculture. However, by making the additional water available through more storage and high efficiency irrigation system, nearly 20 million acre of additional land can be brought under cultivation.
For managing the water scarcity he said that Wapda is recommending the adoption of high efficiency irrigation system in both public and private sector. He said that each province should earmark at least 10,000 acres of land from the next year for drip and sprinkler irrigation through PSDP as pilot projects in collaboration with private sector.
He said that important aspect which needs attention at the national level is the water, which escapes to sea. He said Wapda is presently under taking a study for treatment of saline water. Speaking on the occasion President Pakistan Engineering Congress Engineer Hussain Ahmed said that India should be made to realise that Pakistan will not allow violation of provisions of Indus Basin Treaty.
The case in point is the "Kishanganga" project that would significantly impact "Neelam-Jehlum Hydro-Electric Plant" besides having additional environmental impacts. Earlier, General body of the Pakistan Engineering Congress passed a unanimous resolution for the construction of big dams like Kalabagh and other big dams in the country.
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