Water resources essential for ecosystem, human survival: Moonis Elahi

ISLAMABAD – Federal Minister for Water Resources, Moonis Elahi, today presided over a meeting with Chairman WAPDA in Ministry of Water Resources, 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 underscored the significance of water resources as they are fundamental to our sustainable socio-economic development, balanced ecosystems and for human survival itself.

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, he added. he expressed, WAPDA is constructing more than 10 Projects in water and hydropower sectors under ‘Decade of Dams’.

These projects, including Diamer Bhasha Dam, Mohmand Dam, Dasu Hydropower Project, Nai Gaj Dam, Sindh Barrage and K-IV Project are scheduled to be completed one by one. 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 Minister said.

The Federal Minister reaffirmed that WAPDA would be able to complete these projects according to their timelines. He reiterated that Water Resources Ministry would play its due role in completion of WAPDA Projects on time.