ISLAMABAD, Oct 4: The World Bank is considering to fund mega water projects in the developing countries, including Pakistan, India and the Philippines, to expand its operations, reversing its 1995 decision of not funding big dams.

A water and power ministry official told Dawn that the revival of the bank’s policy to fund big water projects would help the country construct the Kalabagh and Bhasha dams, besides bridging the financing gap in the execution of the ongoing projects.

The Kalabagh and Bhasha dams together have a construction cost of over $6 billion.

He said Pakistan had been persuading the World Bank since early last year to review its policy of not funding big dams because it had restricted the development process.

He said a World Bank official who visited the capital recently had informed the government that the bank was finalizing a decision to support big water projects.

The official said World Bank President James Wolfensohn had recently appointed an expert on big dams to prepare a report on the revival of funding water projects in the third world countries. The report would be presented to the World Bank board of directors for consideration shortly.