Our Staff Reporter ISLAMABAD - Federal Minister for Water and Power Syed Naveed Qamar has said that development of 12 small dams will help socio-economic uplift of remote areas of the country. He said this during a meeting held here on Wednesday to review the construction of 12 small and medium dams in all the four provinces. The meeting was co- chaired by Minister for Water and Power, Syed Naveed Qamar and the Finance Minister Hafeez Sheikh. The Minister for Finance, Hafeez Sheikh assured the meeting that maximum possible increase will be proposed for water sector in the annual development plan 2011-12 keeping in view the available resources. He said that the government will provide all out financial support to other mega projects. Qamar said that President of Pakistan Asif Ali Zardari has inaugurated small dams in the provinces and it is his desire that the projects should be completed timely. Ministry of Water and Power and Finance will also help for arranging finances to complete the dams in time. He asked Wapda to expedite the work on these projects. Besides irrigation of one million acres of cropped area which is the main purpose of the dams, the development of 12 dams will give a benefit to generate 58,000 jobs and emancipation of women through allotment of developed irrigated land around the dams, he maintained. Earlier, the Chairman Wapda Shakeel Durrani briefed the meeting on the current status of the small dams project. He informed that 12 dams will be constructed in two phases in all the four provinces with storage capacity of 4 MAF flood water. In first phase Winder and Naulong dams will be constructed in Balochistan, Kurram Tangi in KPK, Darwat and Nai Gaj dams in Sindh and Ghabir dam will be constructed in Punjab. It was also informed that Exim Bank China and Economic Affairs Division have signed MoU to provide $700 million for small and medium dams by the Exim Bank.