Water Resources Federal Minister Moonis Elahi visited WAPDA House, therein he was briefed about the development portfolio of WAPDA and the progress achieved so far on water and hydropower projects.
Speaking on the occasion, the Federal Minister said that harnessing the water resources is a key to national development. That is why, the Federal Government is constructing water and hydropower projects in the country to improve water situation and increase the ratio of hydel electricity in the National Grid for providing low-cost energy to stabilize the economy and provide relief to the people, he added. The Federal Minister, appreciated WAPDA for implementing a mammoth development portfolio and expressed the hope that WAPDA would be able to complete these projects according to their timelines. He further said that Water Resources Ministry would play its due role in completion of WAPDA Projects on time.
Earlier WAPDA Chairman Lt Gen Muzammil Hussain (Retd), giving a run-down of the development activities, said that WAPDA is constructing more than 10 Projects in water and hydropower sectors under ‘Decade of Dams’. These projects, including Diamer Basha Dam, Mohmand Dam, Dasu Hydropower Project, Nai Gaj Dam, Sindh Barrage and K-IV Project are scheduled to be completed one by one by 2028-29. On completion of these projects, gross water storage capacity will increase from 13 MAF to more than 24 MAF with an addition of 11.7 MAF, sufficient to irrigate another 1.6 Million Acres of land and provide 950 million gallons per day for drinking purpose to Karachi and Peshawar. The installed hydel generation capacity will be doubled to cross 18000 MW with an addition of 9000 MW. These projects will also provide about 35,000 job opportunities during the construction, the Chairman said.
WAPDA Member (Finance) Naveed Asghar briefed the Minister of WAPDA’s financial strategy to arrange funds for construction of its projects. Member (Water) Abdul Zahir Khan Durrani apprised the Minister about the water sector projects, while Member (Power) Jamil Akhtar informed about WAPDA hydel power situation. General Manager (HRD) Brig (Rtd) Shoaib Taqi highlighted the measures being taken by WAPDA to make its human resource more efficient in line with modern human resource techniques.
Water Resources Joint Secretary Syed Mehar Ali Shah, WAPDA MD (Admin) Khalid Saleem, WAPDA Secretary Fakharuzzaman Ali Cheema and PSO to Chairman WAPDA Brig (Retd) Mateen Ahmed Mirza also attended the briefing.
Later, Water Resources Federal Minister also planted a tree at WAPDA House during his visit.
