Govt to begin work on 6 small dams next year

After failing to get $2.1 billion in financing from the Friends of Democratic Pakistan for 12 small dams during the current fiscal year, the government has decided to begin work on 6 dams in the first phase next fiscal year. Water and Power Minister Syed Naveed Qamar and Finance Minister Dr Hafeez Shaikh chaired a joint meeting to review construction of the 12 proposed small dams on Wednesday.
An official source said that the meeting was told that only Exim Bank of China had signed a memorandum of understanding with the government to provide $700 million in assistance for the dams. No other friendly country had made any commitments. However, the finance minister said that the government would be providing maximum possible funds, which he hinted could go up to Rs 20 billion for the water sector, in the annual development plan of 2011-12.
Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA) Chairman Shakeel Durrani said the dams would be built in two phases and would enhance the storage capacity by 4 million acre feet (MAF) of flood water. In the first phase, Winder and Naulong dams would be built in Balochistan, Kurram Tangi dam in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Darwat and Nai Gaj dams in Sindh and Ghabir dam would be built in Punjab, he added.
Under the plan, the government intends to build 5 dams in Balochistan, including Winder dam at the cost of $148 million, Naulong dam at the cost of $377 million and having the capacity to produce 4.4 megawatts (MW) of power, Hingol dam at the cost of $311 million having potential of 3.5MW, Garuk dam for $21 million and Pelar dam at the cost of $20 million.
In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, plans are to build Bara dam at the cost of $167 million and having the capacity to produce 5.8MW, Tank Zam dam at $234 million having the capacity to produce 25.5MW, and Daraban Zam dam at $69 million. In Sindh, Nai Gaj dam would be built at the cost of $332 million and having 4.2MW of potential, as well as Darawat dam for $213 million. The Ghabir dam to be built in Punjab would cost $121 million and Papin dam would cost $101 million.
Pakistan is fast heading towards acute water shortage because of decline in per capita water availability with increase in population. WAPDA estimates say the per capita surface water availability was 5,260 cubic metres in 1951, when the population of the country was 34 million, which reduced to 1,038 cubic metres in 2010 when the estimated population was 172 million.
A country is said to be short of water when it has 1,000 cubic metres or less. In the year 2012, Pakistan will reach the stage of acute water shortage. For a population of nearly 172 million people, the existing water storage capacity of 15MAF, which is 13 percent of the annual flow, needs to be tripled in the years ahead so that the remaining 20 million acres of cultivable land can be brought under the plough.
To address this problem, the government plans to develop 20 MAF of water storage. A statement issued after the meeting said Qamar asked WAPDA to speed up its work, while the government would help arrange finances to complete the dams on time.