22 July 2004	Thursday	04 Jamadi-us-Saani 1425

ISLAMABAD, July 21: The government informed the Senate on Wednesday that the live storage capacity of Tarbela and Mangla Dams had come down by 25 per cent and 20pc, respectively , leading to power and water shortages in the country besides exposing thousands of people to a serious flood threat.

Water and Power Minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao said in a written reply to a question from Senator Mohammad Akram that the original capacity of Tarbela was 'difficult to be restored'.

He said the gross live storage capacity of Tarbela on the Indus River had reduced to 8.496 million acre feet (MAF) from 11.616MAF and that of Mangla on the Jhelum River to 4.729MAF from 5.882MAF.

The minister said the decrease had caused an acute shortage of irrigation water during the late Rabi and early Kharif seasons, lessened the hydro-power generation and made the population living in downstream areas prone to devastation as floodwaters could not be fully regulated.

He said the work on raising the Mangla's height and its reservoir capacity by 2.9MAF was in progress at an estimated cost of Rs62.55 billion and it was likely to compensate the losses to some extent besides adding 300MW to the power generation capacity. For raising Mangla in Azad Kashmir, the government has earmarked Rs62.55 billion.

The house was told that in order to meet the water shortages the government was working on the construction of five dams at an estimated cost of Rs84.29 billion. Gomal Zam Dam is being built at an estimated cost of Rs12.829 billion in the NWFP with a storage capacity of 0.892 MAF and the power generation capacity of 17.4MW.

It is expected to irrigate 163,000 acres. The under-construction Mirani Dam in Balochistan, involving Rs5.811 billion, is projected to have a live storage capacity of 15,200MAF and expected to irrigate 33,200 acres.

With a power generation capacity of 12.7MW and a live storage capacity of 1,484MAF, the Satpara Dam in Northern Areas is expected to irrigate 15,536 acres. It is expected to cost over Rs2.090 billion.

The Sabakzai Dam in Balochistan is expected to irrigate 6,680 acres with a live storage capacity of 21,646MAF. It is expected to cost more than Rs1 billion. In reply to a question from Senator Sanaullah Baloch, the minister said there was no ban on tubewell connections in any province.

However, he explained, restrictions were temporarily imposed in parts of Balochistan due to overloading of grid station transformers and transmission lines. Mr Sherpao said 17 out of 55 grid stations and six transmission lines in Balochistan were overloaded.