Islamabad - Federal Minister for Water and Power Khawaja Muhammad Asif has said that water crisis is looming over Pakistan, and if solid steps are not taken to tap the existing water resources of the country, the situation may get even worse.

Speaking at a meeting held here on Monday with international development partners like USAID, World Bank, AEDB, JAICA and others, he said that since water was underpriced, ordinary people did not know its value. “The wastage of this precious resource is rampant, and is fast deteriorating the situation,” he added.

Masroor Ahmed, from World Bank, William Bill Young, also from World Bank, Ehtisham, from ADB, Michino Yamaguchi, Senior Representative of JICA, Kenji Ogasahara, a Representative of JICA, Amir Bukhari, Senior Programme Officer of JICA, Nauman Bhutta, from AFD, Arbab Shakar, from Swiss Embassy, Inamullah Khan, Country Representative, ISDB, Dr Pervez Naeem, Senior Program Coordinator, KFW, Nadeem Siddiqi, KFW, Sebastian ERNST, Embassy of Germany, Bongsu Park, Embassy of Korea, Tore Nadrebo, Embassy of Norway, Rick Slettenhaar, Head of the Economic Department, Embassy of Netherlands, Sadiq Babur Girgin, Ambassador of Turkey, Tokhir Mirzoev, IMF, Anwarul Haq, Member Finance, WAPDA, Izharul Haq, Advisor, WAPDA, Syed Mehr Ali Shah, Joint Secretary (Water), Hiba Zaidi, IMF, Maqsood Ahmed, NTDC and Hamza Khalid, from Australian High Commission attended the meeting.

The minister said that water is gift of nature and vital for the survival of human race. “We do not have any significant water storage capacity after we built Tarbela and Mangla in the 60s,” he said, and added, “Pakistan storage capacity has reduced due to silting.”

He said the present government was paying special attention towards water sector management and had drafted a water policy in consultation with all the stakeholders in this connection.

“The water policy is a comprehensive policy document for tapping the water resources of the country,” he elaborated.

Talking about the long way the Ministry of Water and Power has come since the PML-N government took office in 2013, Asif said that a lot had been achieved in terms of sectoral reforms.

He said that a number of milestones had been achieved, including stability of the sector, increase in generation, and improvement of the transmission system.

“The government has come up with a long-term strategy to ensure macro-economic stability. In this connection, it has chalked out an ambitious strategy for the power sector,” Asif said, and added, “Simultaneously it has not only addressed the key challenges of the power sector, but has also introduced an energy market, which is a investment heaven for the international and local entrepreneurs.”

Briefing the participants, Secretary Ministry of Water and Power Muhammad Younus Dagha said the power sector had taken a turn around in 2015 as major milestones were achieved.

He said that confidence of the investors had greatly been restored, and this could be easily gauged from the fact that in the last 20 years, investments were made in 10000 MW projects, while in the last three years, investments were made in 12000 MW projects by the private sector. Expressing gratitude to the development partners for providing assistance to the ministry in the upgradation of its system, the secretary said that a lot had been achieved and the results had now started coming.

“Overall T& D losses of the system have been reduced from 19.1 percent to 18 percent, resulting in saving Rs10 billion,” the secretary informed.

He said that an effective monitoring of the generation and merit order had further improved the situation, and the recoveries had come to 93.4 percent as against the 88 percent, registering a significant increase and betterment of liquidity of the power sector.

The secretary further highlighted the regional connectivity initiatives by the present government. He said that Pakistan had all the potential to become a regional energy hub.

He cited CASA-1000 as an example and said the project had now entered the implementation stage, making the regional connection a reality.

World Bank representative apprised the meeting about the water sector partnership with Government of Pakistan, especially the development of flood protection plan and various underground and surface water feasibilities studies conducted by the Bank.

He also suggested that water availability needed to be improved along with ensuring that water resources were tapped.

He identified financial allocation for the water sector as a key area, and stressed training of the officials and those associated with the water sector at the provincial level for water sector management.

The meeting was briefed about the status of different water sector projects by WAPDA Chairman Zafar Mahamood.

He told the meeting the present government had initiated a large number of projects in the water sector and after a gap of nearly 50 years, large dams like Dasu and Diamer Basha were being pursued.

He also apprised the meeting about the Kuram Tangi, Satpara, Khan Khawar, Khyal Khawar, Dubir Khawar and other hydro-electric projects.