ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Water Resources onTuesday was informed that the Executive Committee of National EconomicCouncil (ECNEC) has approved the revised land acquisition cost for DasuHydropower Project worth Rs37 billion.
The committee, which met with Nawab Muhammad Yousuf Talpur in the chair,reviewed land acquisition issues of Dasu Hydropower Project, implementationstatus of earlier recommendations of the committee, water distribution andits shortages to the provinces.
Briefing the NA panel, WAPDA member Zahid Khan Durrani said that theauthority would arrange additional cost of Rs18 billion from its own equityand local commercial financing.
He said that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Senior Member Board of Revenue (SMBR) hadalready committed that the district administration would complete the landacquisition for priority areas (1,247 acres) within six months andremaining land within one year after the approval of revised land cost byECNEC.
Water Resources Secretary Muhammad Ashraf told the committee that theCouncil of Common Interest (CCI) had already approved Water Policy in April2018. Under the policy, water storage capacity in the country would beenhanced to store an additional 10 million acre-feet (MAF) by 2030, headded.
Out of the total, he said, around 7.1 MAF water would be stored through theconstruction of Diamer-Basha and Mohmand dams while the remaining by smallstorages dams in all provinces.
Regarding Naulong dam, the committee was told that the revised PC-1 of theproject has been submitted to the Planning Commission for approval.
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Regarding the provision of water to Bahawalpur, the Punjab irrigationsecretary informed the committee that additional water was not available inthe system and that water was being provided to Bahawalpur as per itsshare. Additional water could only be provided in case of more storagecapacity, he added.
Indus River System Authority (IRSA) Chairman Sher Zaman briefed thecommittee about the anticipated water availability for Rabi crop 2019-20and rim stations inflows during Kharif season 2019.
He said that currently, additional 4MAF water was available in thereservoirs as compared to last year.
The committee deferred the Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resources(Amendment) Bill, 2019, due to absence of its mover.
The meeting was attended by MNAs Fazal Muhammad Khan, Ali Nawaz Awan,Sheikh Rashid Shafique, Muhammad Afzal Dhandla, Muhammad Farooq Malik,Javeed Iqbal, Naureen Farooq Khan, Nuzhat Pathan, Khalid Hussain Magsi,Maryam Auranzaib, Ehsanur Rehman and Muhammad Hamid Hameed.
