Beijing to help Pakistan tackle water crisis for good

Chinese experts mull over how to exploit potential of storing water and generating power on Indus

ISLAMABAD: In a major development, China has formally decided to wriggle Pakistan out of water crisis for good. To this effect, Beijing has sent two batches of experts to Pakistan who are currently meeting the authorities concerned to discuss how to exploit the potential of storing water and generating hydropower on the mighty Indus, a senior official of the Ministry of Water and Power told The News.

“Beijing wants to bail out Pakistan on the front of acquiring water security under the umbrella of CPEC and to this effect experts from Beijing are in the process of holding a series of meetings with the Wapda’s top mandarins in addition to visiting the various sides of Indus basin.

They are also studying Wapda’s 2025 Vision and after that they will make up their mind on how to exploit the potential of increasing the water storage capacity and hydro generation of the country.”

According to Wapda study, the Indus cascade with the drop of 7,030 feet starting from Shyok hydropower project to Kalabagh Dam has the identified hydro generation potential of 40,000 MW whereas the Indus basin has the total potential of hyro generation of 100,000 MW.

Pakistan has multiple sites for hydrogenation along with the 500 kilometers stretch on Indus cascade. 

Shyok hydropower can be built with capacity to generate 690 MW, Skardu 1200 MW, Tungus 2200 MW, Yulbu 2800MW, Bunji 7100MW, Diamer-Basha 4500MW, Dasu 5400 MW, Pattan 2400 MW, Thakot 4000MW, Tarbela and Ghazi Barotha 6356 MW, and Kalabagh dam if built will produce 3,600MW. The sitting government also, the official said, decided to increase reliance on generation of electricity by developing hydropower plants on the Indus and encouraging thermal power plants based on Thar coal. 

The government has taken this decision to increase electricity generation in future based on indigenous resources. 

In the second phase of CPEC, the government will increase focus on hydrogenation and if viewed the ongoing visit of Chinese experts for exploiting the hydropower potential on Indus basin, then the significance of the recent visit will get understood, the official argued. The decision to exploit, he said, full hydel potential of Indus basin was taken during the sixth meeting of the Joint Cooperation Committee (JCC) of the CPEC recently held in Beijing. The decision is being perceived as vital and strategic.

The per capita water availability is dwindling with every passing day in Pakistan, putting the food security at risk. 

The per capita water availability in Pakistan has dwindled by over 406 percent from 5,260 cubic meters in 1951 to 1,038 cubic meters in 2010, only marginally above the 1,000 cubic meters per person threshold value under the global criteria.

“If the status quo continues, then by 2020, the water availability in Pakistan would further plummeted to 877 cubic meters per annum, which will further go down to an alarmingly level of 575 cubic feet in 2050,” Wapda’s water report says.

The report highlighted that Pakistan’s storage capacity is just for 30 days, whereas India has the ability to store water for 120-220 days.

Meanwhile, Egypt has 1,000 days water storage capacity only on River Nile, America 900 days on River Colorado, Australia 600 and South Africa has the ability to store water for 500 days on River Orange.

The agriculture productivity in Pakistan in the wake of just 30 days water storage capacity has also alarmingly tumbled because of the water scarcity and its contribution towards gross domestic product (GDP) has lowered by 21.8 percent of GDP.”

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif will formally perform the ground-breaking ceremony of strategically important project Diamer-Bhasha dam in December 2017.

The dam portion at cost of $5 billion of the project will be erected with indigenous resources under which Rs60 billion each year from PSDP (Public Sector Development Program) will be arranged till its completion. 

The financing plan through indigenous resources had already been approved by the premier. For this, Wapda will submit the revised PC-I of Diamer-Bhasha dam with the Planning Commission with separate parts of the projects --- dam and power houses--- for approval. 

The government will ensure interest-free loans or grants for the dam portion. However, for power houses the government will encourage even Chinese investment in some parts of the power houses. The power houses will be built on commercial loans. So far, 95 percent of the land for the project has been attained at the cost of Rs56 billion.

The remaining portion of the land will also be acquired within 2-4 months. The land for dam site, however, has been fully acquired.