The cost of electricity in Pakistan has become unbearably high. It is causing great hardship to the citizens, agriculture and industry. One of Prime Minister Jamali’s first acts was to take notice of this issue and instruct lowering the tariff.

A token reduction has been made. But how can anything substantial be done when there is the great burden of imported oil for thermal power stations of the independent power producers (IPP) as well as the country’s preponderantly thermal power system. The IMF conditioalities have also to be contended with. Although President Pervez Musharraf’s government has taken welcome steps to bring back Wapda to its original task of water power development, more urgency is needed. The question then arises: Is there any solution for the mess?

Background: Up to 1960 there was not much electricity in Pakistan. The NWFP had two hydroelectric power stations, 20 MW each, and Punjab had one, also 20 MW. Most cities had small local power stations. Lahore was importing electricity from India. Fortunately it was realized that the country had tremendous waterpower resources. In 1958 The Water and Power Development Authority Act for the integrated and multipurpose development of the waterpower resources of West Pakistan was enacted. Earlier, a power development section had been set up in the Pakistan Industrial Development Corporation under the leadership of Mr. Ghulam Faruque. Work was started on the 240MW, Multan natural gas power station as well as the transmission system between Multan, Lahore, Lyallpur (Faisalabad) and through cities north up to the under-construction 160 MW Warsak hydroelectric power station. In 1959, Wapda became operational in Lahore with Mr. Ghulam Faruque as chairman and a small nucleus of engineers among whom I had the privilege of being one.

Golden Era: The period between 1959 and 1976 was the golden era of Wapda. Several large and medium-sized power stations were built throughout the country including huge hydroelectric ones at Mangla and Tarbela, small ones at Nandipur, Chichokimalian and Shadiwal: Big thermal ones at Multan, Guddu, Sukkur, Faisalabad etc. as well as an integrated power transmission system at 132kv, 220kV and 500kV stretching throughout the country. It also had a centralized state-of-the-art telecommunications and control system. Several large link canals and barrages, forming part of the gigantic Indus Basin Replacement Works, were constructed. Wapda in that period was involved in one of the biggest development programmes in the world, costing more than $3.5 billion. It had a galaxy of world-class engineers, highly qualified, competent and of high integrity.

Stoppage of water-power development: After 1976 WAPDA suffered many setbacks. The first was the leadership from 1976 to 1991 that proved disastrous in several ways. The average annual growth rate of installed power capacity, which was growing at over 20 per cent between 1959 and 1976, fell to 9 per cent between 1977 to 1990. During this period Wapda completely abdicated its major role i.e. water-power development. Instead its top leadership turned it into a thermal power organization, for reasons other than the national good. Only thermal power stations were built. Criminal negligence towards waterpower development resulted in not furthering the work of investigations and feasibility studies of dozens of known hydroelectric projects. Not a single hydroelectric power station was constructed after Tarbela.

Not only that, until 2000, Wapda did not continue or complete the feasibility and engineering studies of even the ranked projects of Basha, Dassu, Bunji, etc. Even the $20 million offered by the Asian Development Bank for the feasibility of Basha was not utilized. Until recently it did not have bankable documents for any waterpower project! It would be in the national interest to appoint a commission to probe the reasons and motives which led to this state. President Pervez Musharraf has himself deplored the policies of the previous governments in this sector. Prime Minister Jamali’s government should take note. The damage done has been pernicious and pervasive.

Greatest resource: It is surprising that most people don’t know that Pakistan’s greatest resource is its untapped identified hydroelectric potential of about 50,000 MW. By not utilizing this great resource there has been the electricity crises for over two decades. After 55 years we have only about 18,000 MW of installed power capacity. There were load sheddings of the 80’s and ‘90s accompanied by massive losses to agriculture, industry and hardships for the people. Over 40 percent of the population still remain without electricity. A 70:30 hydro/thermal mix has been reversed to a 30:70 mix. Because no storages were built, severe water shortages have resulted. Another vital project and part of Wapda’s charter, inland waterways, has been ignored all along. The Railways have not been electrified. For them and the power stations, billions of dollars worth of oil imports cause a severe drain on economy. The most damaging IPP’s saga is another result of ignoring hydroelectric development (as well as greed). In 1994, I am on record at the presentation of the policy in Lahore, trying and getting the promise to firstly limit the thermal IPP’s to 2000 MW; secondly to get the tariff reduced; and most importantly to make massive hydroelectric development top national priority. In articles published then I pointed out that if Hubco was touted as foreign investment, then Pakistan was much better off without it. The IPPs have made the power tariff so high that it has become unaffordable.

Hydroelectric development: A pertinent question is: Were any efforts made to remedy this situation. The answer is a resounding yes, because I have been vigorously pursuing it for over 26 years. We held the national seminar on the Role of Hydroelectric Resources in the Development of Pakistan, in 1975 at Lahore, with the minister for water, secretaries of the ministries of water and power and science and technology, chairman and members of Wapda and 200 of the country’s leading power and irrigation engineers.

My paper was accepted, recommending to the government the acceleration of hydroelectric development with ranking studies to be carried out on the major sites on the River Indus. Work was urgently to start on two major hydroelectric projects to take the country’s installed power capacity to 12,000 megawatts by 1982. This programme was accepted and announced to the nation by the late prime minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, as part of the multi-sectoral national development programme at the Engineers Convention in Lahore on 22 December 1976.

But unfortunately with the change of government in 1977, except for the ranking study and the feasibility work and report on Basha, which was delayed and conducted between 1981 and 1984, the grand programme remained abandoned. My mission has continued from 1974, firstly for the acceleration of power development, and secondly for the imperative of utilizing our abundant waterpower resources for the economic development and prosperity of the country, at the highest levels of government, in national seminars, in engineering journals and in the press, radio and television.

SHYDO: I was able to convince the government of NWFP of the necessity and benefits of hydroelectric development in the early ‘80s. Fortunately they formed the Sarhad Hydel Development Organization, (SHYDO), which has done considerable work in collaboration with GTZ, utilizing Pakistani and foreign consultants to identify a large number of small and medium hydel projects and prepare feasibilities of some. The Azad Kashmir government has also identified several medium and small hydel projects.