LAHORE: WAPDA Chairman Lt Gen Muzammil Hussain (Retd) has said that as many as 20 million acres of virgin land can be brought under irrigated agriculture in Pakistan if water is made available by constructing dams.
WAPDA is executing a number of mega projects scheduled to be completed by 2029 in a phased manner and the water storage will increase from 13 Million Acre Feet (MAF) to 24 MAF with an addition of 11.7 MAF that will help irrigate 1.6 million acres of land in the country, he added.
He was briefing to the delegation of National Security Workshop being held under the aegis of National Defence University (NDU), Islamabad. The delegation - headed by Maj Gen Ehsan Mehmood Khan and comprised of Senators, Members of the National Assembly, Members of the Provincial Assemblies, Member of AJK Legislative Assembly, Civil Servants, officers from the Armed Forces and representatives from the civil society -visited WAPDA House on Friday. WAPDA members and senior officers were also present on the occasion.
Referring to the under-construction WAPDA projects, the Chairman said that in addition to vying for water and food security, WAPDA is also executing an ambitious hydropower generation expansion plan to help country attain energy security. We do not need merely electricity but we do need cheap electricity to keep the wheel of our economy moving and tackle the ballooning circular debt faced by our energy sector.
At present, hydel share in overall energy mix stands at 31 percent with annual energy generation of 37 billion units. WAPDA, under its generation plan, is committed to adding another 17 billion units of low-cost hydel electricity from 37 to 54 billion units by the year 2025 and another 27 billion hydel units from 54 to 81 billion units by the year 2028-29. Similarly, the existing installed generation capacity of hydroelectric from 9406 MW to 12366 MW by the year 2025 and 20591 MW by the year 2028-29, the Chairman said.
The Chairman apprised the delegation about the social benefits of WAPDA projects for the people particularly those hailing from the projects' areas. Development schemes worth Rs102 billion will be completed in projects' areas under Confidence Building Measures (CBMs) by WAPDA. Besides, job opportunities currently available at the sites would also be increased to 35000 during peak construction phase on WAPDA projects, he added.
Briefing the delegation about the water and power situations in the country, WAPDA Chairman said that there are daunting challenges but these challenges carry with them the opportunities as well. WAPDA has been capitalizing these opportunities for economic and social gains, he concluded. Following the briefing, the Chairman also responded to the questions asked by the participants of the NDU National Security Workshop.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2021