National Water Policy to be approved

Islamabad: Minister for Water and Power, Tariq Hameed said on Sunday that National Water Policy is likely to be approved by the caretaker cabinet as its draft has been sent for approval. 'It will be my endeavour to pass the draft of the policy from present cabinet as the matter was pending since long, the minister said in an interview with APP.

He said the same draft has been sent to the cabinet, recommended earlier, without any amendment as it was prepared covering all aspects. He said construction work on Kalabagh Dam can be completed within seven years if task of development work assigns to the concerned with consensus.

'Kalabagh is a not a technical issue but a political matter and I wish it should be resolved,' the minister said replying to a question regarding delay in project.

He said the government will be able to overcome the power demand and supply gap by 2010 as within two to three years, capacity of generation and consumption will be balanced. He said the situation will improve from 2009 onwards after starting power production from eight power plants under Private Power Infrastructure Board (PPIB). He said 2,700MW additional power capacity will be added in coming three years after completion of these PPIB projects.

He said all mega power projects will be completed by 2016 included Basha-Diamer, Kalabagh, Akora, Munda and Kurram-Tungi to further produce 9,000MW electricity in the country. He added that electricity demand would also be met through small and medium power generation projects under public-private partnership.

Tariq Hameed said a comprehensive strategy is being chalked out for utilisation of coal in power generation to balance the supply and demand of the electricity.

He added that study on Kalabagh Dam has been completed while engineering work of Basha-Diamer Dam will be completed by the end of 2008. He said the contract award of the project is likely in 2009 while deadline of 2016 has been fixed for its completion.

The minister said private sector will complete Munda Dam while pending work of Khuram-Tungi will be started within three months. He said Wapda has planned to start new power plant at Guddu to improve additional power up to 800MW during 2008-09.

He said Mangla raising project will be completed in June next and its filling will be in next summer due to which capacity generation will increase, estimated at 180MW.

He said development work has been started on Jinnah hydel project at Jinnah Barrage by Wapda to generate 94MW electricity to be completed in 2010. He said PPIB has been directed to remove bottlenecks in small hydel projects having capacity of 100MW to 200MW.

He said in order to overcome load-shedding problem besides starting effective management Wapda will get one rental plant while two rental plants already inaugurated having total capacity of 286MW to reduce power shortage in the country. Tariq Hameed said 150MW power will be produced by 2008 through windmills while 600 houses have been provided solar energy in all four provinces.

He said there is no any plan of making some amendments in Nepra rules, adding the main thing is proper implementation of such rules. Tariq Hameed said the ministry has planned to purchase 100,000 energy saver bulbs to be distributed in hospitals, educational institutions and other government offices to save energy.

He said these saver bulbs will also be placed at Utility Stores as it saves 80 percent energy than other bulbs. He added that the decision of closing shops by 8:00pm has saved 300MW electricity.