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DAM-L Musharraf rules out early construction of Kalabagh dam (fwd)
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From: Right to Water <right-to-water@iatp.org>
To: dianne@sandelman.ottawa.on.ca
Subject: Musharraf rules out early construction of Kalabagh dam
Date: Tue, 24 Jul 2001 15:03:27 -0500
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Right to Water (right-to-water@iatp.org) Posted: 07/24/2001 By daima@brain.net.pk
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Musharraf rules out early construction of Kalabagh dam
By I.H. Raashed
LAHORE, July 23: President Gen Pervez Musharraf says that work on Kalabagh
Dam cannot be started immediately as it is a contentious project.
Inaugurating the one-day international seminar on Wapda's Vision 2025
Programme at a hotel here on Monday , the president said: "It will not be
appropriate to build the reservoir right now when other options like the
Bhasha dam are available."
Nevertheless, he said, the KBD was important for Pakistan and could be taken
up at some later stage. "People ask me if the government has shelved the
project. My answer is that the nation's water requirements should be seen in
the context of next half a century."
Musharraf said the Vision 2025 would focus on water requirements for the
next 25 years. He said existing water reservoirs had already lost more than
four million acre feet of their capacity due to sedimentation. To meet the
loss and the future demand Pakistan would need more than one dam.
He hoped that in future as harmony developed among the people of the country
they would realise the importance of the Kalabagh dam. As regards the Bhasha
dam, the president said that detailed studies had been started on the
project which would take three to four years to complete and the
construction work could start from 2005 to 2007.
He said that cheap thermal power could be produced by using coal instead of
costly gas. He said that Pakistan had one of the world's biggest coal
reserves at Thar with a huge capacity of 175 billion tons. Unfortunately, no
attention had been given in the past to tap this important source of energy.
He said that Chinese technicians had been engaged to undertake preliminary
work on Thar coal exploitation. He said that a 3,000 MW power station could
be set up on Thar coal.
Gen Musharraf said that Pakistan had a potential of over 40,000 MW of hydel
power out of which only 12 per cent had been harnessed so far. The previous
governments laid emphasis on thermal generation which had reversed a good
hydro-thermal ratio and now 70 per cent of the country's power generation
was thermal. This had resulted in increase in power tariff which had hit the
domestic consumers and increased the production cost of industrial goods.
He said that drought and water affluence was a cyclic phenomenon. "If we had
carried out proper water management in the past and had created sufficient
storage capacity, the drought conditions which prevailed during the past two
years could have been mitigated to a large extent."
He said that for harnessing the tremendous potential in water and hydel
power sectors the government had approved a Wapda study called Vision 2025
which was a national programme which had identified a water storage
potential of 65 maf and 35,000 MW of hydel power in all the provinces,
Northern Areas and Azad Jammu and Kashmir.
Wapda, which had the largest repository of professionally qualified
engineers, had been entrusted the task of undertaking the new projects of
Vision 2025 which would be executed both in public and private sectors or as
joint ventures. He said that Rs four billion had been allocated during the
current financial year to start work on some of the new projects, including
Gomal Zam and Mirani dams, Greater Thal Canal, RBOD and lining of numerous
canals. He said that he would be opening some of these projects from August
14 to 17 next.
In addition, the development budget had also a drought support programme of
Rs10 billion which would not only mitigate the suffering of the affected
people but also help them get better prepared for its recurrence in future.
He said that agriculture was the most important of the four sectors the
government had selected for leading the process of economic growth.
He said that no poverty reduction plan could succeed unless complimented by
a strategy to generate employment. He said that Vision 2025 would help
poverty alleviation as it would provide jobs to about one million people in
the far-flung and rural areas of Pakistan.
Development VISIONS,
48 A, Shalimar Colony,
Bosan Road, Multan- Pakistan
Ph:++92-61-222609
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