Wapda to increase water storage

ISLAMABAD: After completion of 10 under construction Wapda projects, gross water storage capacity in the country would increase from 13 million acre feet (MAF) to more than 24 MAF, said a Wapda official on Saturday.

The addition of 11.7 MAF in water storage capacity would be sufficient to irrigate another 1.6 million acres of land, he added.

The under construction Wapda projects include five dams, three hydropower projects, one canal, and one water supply scheme.

Diamer Bhasha Dam, Mohmand Dam, Dasu Hydropower Project, Nai Gaj Dam, Kachhi Canal Extension, Sindh Barrage, and K-IV Project are among the projects.

The installed hydel generation capacity would be doubled and set to cross 18,000MW with an addition of 9,000MW on completion of the projects, he continued.

He stated that the under construction Wapda projects would provide about 35,000 job opportunities during the construction.

The per capita water availability in Pakistan had come down from 5650 cubic meter in 1951 to an alarming level of 908 cubic meter per annum, pushing the country on water-scarce stage.

The country could store only 10 per cent of its annual river flows against the world average of 40 per cent, he told.

He was of the view that more water storage was needed besides practicing good water conservation and management strategies to tackle impending water scarcity.