ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Water and Power Khawaja Muhammad Asif has said that water crisis is looming over Pakistan if solid steps were not taken to tap the existing water resources of Pakistan.
Addressing a progress review meeting with international development partners here on Monday, he said that since the water was underpriced and its value was not known to ordinary people, the wastage of this precious resource was rampant leading towards fast deteriorating situation.
The minister said that water was a gift of nature and vital for survival of human race. “We have not made any significant water storage capacity after building of Tarbela and Mangla in the 1960s,” he said. Pakistan’s storage capacity has indeed reduced due to silting, he said.
He said that the government paid focused attention towards water sector management and drafted water policy in consultation with all stakeholders. He said that the water policy was a comprehensive policy document for tapping the water resources. Highlighting the long way, the minister said that a lot has been achieved in the sectoral reforms.
He said that a number of milestones have been achieved, including stability of the sector, reliability in liquidity, addition of generation, improvement of transmission system etc. He said that the government came up with long-term strategy ensuring macroeconomic stability. “We also have an ambitious strategy for power sector to address key challenges of the power sector and to introduce energy market,” he said.
Briefing the participants, Water and Power Secretary Mohammad Younus Dagha said that the power sector has taken turn around in the year 2015 as major milestone have been achieved. He said that confidence of the investors has greatly been restored and this could be easily gauged from the fact that in the last 20 years investment was made in 10000 megawatts projects while in the last three years investment has been made in 12000 megawatts projects by the private sector.
Paying gratitude towards development partners like USAID, World Bank, AEDB, JICA etc for providing assistance to the Ministry of Water and Power in up-gradation of its system, the secretary said that a lot has been achieved and the results have now started coming. He further highlighted the regional connectivity initiatives by the government.
