01 October 2004	Friday	15 Shaban 1425

PESHAWAR, Sept 30: Water and Power Minister Liaqat Ali Jatoi on Thursday nullified the Water and Power Development Authority's decision to work out a load shedding plan because of water shortage and asked Wapda to submit its plan in this regard to the ministry.

"The decision should not have been taken without the ministry's approval," the minister said at a press conference here. According to press reports, Wapda had decided to carry out load shedding because of decline in hydroelectric power generation due to shortage of water.

"There is a political government and we will look into the matter before taking a decision about load shedding," he said. He said the authority had been directed to submit its plan to the ministry with an explicit load shedding programme.

The ministry, he said, should be informed that for how many days and in which parts of the country Wapda wanted to apply load management. "We will look into the plan and take a decision after reviewing the water situation," the minister and added: "Load shedding will be carried out only after approval by the ministry."

Peshawar Electricity Supply Company sources told Dawn that the authority had opted for load shedding on its own in accordance with its general procedure, under which it had never taken approval from the ministry in the past.

The minister said that it would be a difficult year in view of the looming water shortage in the catchments of the Tarbela and Mangla water reservoirs. "This will be the most difficult year as far as water shortage is concerned," he said.

He said the country's hydroelectric power generation capacity had been undermined because glaciers in the catchments in Skardu did not melt much as the temperature remained as low as 15 to 16 degrees Celsius during the summer.

Replying to a question, the minister said the government would not hesitate in taking a decision in support of constructing a large dam at Kalabagh if it found the project in the national interest after reviewing the report of the technical committee constituted to review the water crisis.

"The committee will shortly submit its report in the light of which a decision will be taken in the national interest," said Mr Jatoi. He expressed confidence that the decision would be taken during the current year after developing consensus among the provinces.

"We will achieve this feat as we managed to develop a consensus among the federating units on the distribution of water during the Kharif season," he said in reply to a question.