Dams construction inevitable to avert water scarcity: PM Imran Khan

SWAT: Prime Minister Imran Khan on Thursday said the government is making efforts to generate environment-friendly electricity from natural resources till 2030.

Addressing the groundbreaking ceremony of Tarbela-5 (T5) expansion project, the prime minister said the government had decided to construct 10 dams within the next 10 years with a view to avert the looming water scarcity in the country as well as protect future generations.

“We have decided to construct 10 dams within 10 years including Dassu and Bhasha dams. We may face water shortage in the future and would be unable to cope with the needs of people and farmers unless we have storage,” he said. The prime minister said the project’s objective was to achieve clean energy, and contribute to the fight against global warming.

He said the global weather was turning hot very fast making the world face the issues like forest fires as had been witnessed in US, Turkey, Greece, and other countries. Moreover, the unprecedented floods and extremely hot weathers like Jacobabad were also the consequences of global warming.

The prime minister viewed that the generation of clean energy would help mitigate the effects of global warming. He resolved to make Pakistan a country with its major chunk of energy coming from clean sources like hydro, solar or wind instead of fuels.

Besides providing clean energy, the Tarbela-5 would also protect the dam against silting was just four kilometer from the reservoir, he said, adding the construction of Dassu and Bhasha dams would also help slow down the silt.

PM Imran Khan said unfortunately, the previous governments had not constructed water reservoirs either due to lack of long term planning or because they just focused their five-year term.

The prime minister said the previous governments had signed the exorbitant contracts making the country pay whether the electricity was consumed or not. “This way, the consumers including the industry had to bear the cost. Owing to the costly electricity, the industry could not compete with the world market until the government paid subsidy,” he said.

He said Pakistan’s rivers got 80% of water inflow within three to four months and the construction of reservoirs was extremely essential to store supply water throughout the year. He hoped that the construction of Mohmand Dam would complete by 2025 and Bhasha Dam in 2028 which would ensure the protection of future generations.

The T5 expansion project would be completed costing $807 million within three years with the financial assistance of World Bank and Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB).

The project is aimed at protecting the Tarbela Dam against silting besides helping generate 1530 MW electricity and provide 1.34 billion units of power to the national grid.

The construction of Tarbela-5 expansion project would also beget 3,000 jobs and would enhance power production capacity of Tarbela Hydropower Project from 4,888 MW to 6,418 MW.

It would also play an important role to cope with the country’s needs of water, food and energy. Under the project, the water supply for irrigation purpose would also continue.