Daily Times

Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA) has been executing various projects with an estimated cost of around US $ 26 billion to harness cheap hydel electricity potential besides ensuring water security.

Few of these projects included Diamer Basha Dam, Mohmand Dam and Dasu, official sources told APP.

These projects, scheduled to be completed one by one from 2022 to 2028-29, would cumulatively add 11 million acre feet to gross water storage capacity, mitigate floods, irrigate 1.6 million acres of land and generate 9000 megawatt of hydel electricity, they said.

They said an innovative financial plan was also devised to arrange funds for construction of two mega projects Diamer Basha and Mohmand dams by exploiting its own financial strength with less dependence on national exchequer.

WAPDA was planning to raise US $ 2.5 billion through issuance of bonds in next five years as per financial needs for construction of our projects, they said.

It is pertinent to mention here that WAPDA is the first public sector entity that has been given stable outlook equivalent to Pakistan by the top three international credit rating agencies of the world i.e. Moody’s, Fitch and Standard and Poor (S&P). WAPDA is also the first public sector organization in the country that is about to launch Green Eurobonds.

Pakistan can store only 10 percent of its annual river flows against the world average of 40 percent. To tackle the impending water scarcity, it was need of the hour to have more water storage besides practicing good water conservation and management strategies.