MIRPUR (AJK): (Parliament Times) A delegation of Command and Staff College, Quetta visited WAPDA House on Monday and attended a briefing on future challenges and prospects regarding the water and power development in Pakistan during their study tour, it was officially declared.
The delegation was headed by senior instructor Col Zeeshan Fayyaz. Member Finance Muhammad Ikram Khan Member Water Muhammad Nawaz Butt, Member Power Arshad Chaudhary, Secretary WAPDA Amer Ahmad and senior officers of WAPDA and PEPCO were also present on the occasion.
Additional Chief Engineer (Dams), WAPDA Shahid Hamid gave comprehensive briefing relating to water and hydropower sectors. He emphasized that the present prevailing situation of water and power in the country demands for development of new water and hydro power projects to cope with the ever increasing demand of water and energy. He further stated that per capita water availability in the country has decreased due to rapid growth in population and depleting water storage capacity of the reservoirs because of the natural phenomenon of sedimentation.
He said that Pakistan can store only 10 percent of its annual rivers flow against the world average of 40 percent. He said that WAPDA is committed to optimum development of water and hydropower resources in the country and working on a comprehensive strategy. He emphasized that Indus Cascade is Pakistan’s most precious asset which will help to add a big quantum of cheap hydel generation and storages of water. He also added that an additional area of 20 MAF land can be brought under irrigation owing to construction of new reservoirs. He apprised the delegation that Diamer Basha Dam, Mohmand Dam, Kurram Tangi Dam (Stage-1) and Naulong Dam are ready for construction. These dams have total storage capacity of more than 8 MAF and will produce about 5000 MW cheap hydel electricity after their completion.
He further briefed the participants that WAPDA has recently inaugurated Golen Gol Hydropower Project in January and Tarbela 4th Extension Hydropower Project in February this year. He informed that the third Hydropower Project of WAPDA i.e. Neelum Jhelum Hydropower Project, an excellence of engineering, is scheduled to be inaugurated in the mid of this month. All these three hydropower projects will add 2487 MW low cost hydel electricity in the National Grid.
The delegation was also briefed about impact of climate change on water resources, water management challenges, water conservation and hydropower potential of the country.
In another briefing, PEPCO General Manager (Revenue and Commercial Operation) Muhammad Saleem informed the delegation about power sector reforms, electricity loadshedding, energy mix, distribution and transmission losses, billing and percentage of recovery and receivables. They were also informed about new initiatives regarding generation expansion plan, system improvement, meter reading through mobile phones, automatic metering infrastructure and net metering etc.
The briefing was followed by Question-Answer session. Later, Member (Finance) WAPDA and delegation head exchanged the souvenirs.
