LAHORE, Oct 20: The Electric Power Forum has urged President Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz to make adequate resources available to Wapda for the proposed combined cycle thermal power house and new hydel power stations to avoid heavy power loadshedding next summer.

Talking to newsmen at Bakhtiar Labour Hall here on Wednesday, Forum chairman Justice Nasim Hassan Shah (retired) and other office bearers said the construction of new dams and hydel and thermal power stations was necessary as hydel power generation had been reduced from 3,200MW last summer to 1,245MW this year. Power demand was expected to increase by another 1,000MW next year.

They said the meeting of increasing demand from the thermal power generated by the private companies was not advisable because their price was the highest in the world. The Wapda could generate thermal power at Rs1.25 per unit but was being forced to purchase it at Rs3 per unit from the private companies against national interest.

The government, they said, should also review the decision to privatize the profit making power distribution companies as it would result in further increase in the already high power tariff.

Privatization of power distribution companies was also expected to give rise to inter-provincial disputes similar to water sharing disputes. He said this practice had failed in New Zealand, California and India.

Employers Federation of Pakistan, Punjab Branch, president Mian Tajammal Hussain said that a large quantity of water flowing into the sea could be stored for power generation and irrigation purposes by constructing new reservoirs starting with the Kalabagh dam. He said that a decision on Kalabagh dam should be taken from a national point of view.

Former Wapda general manager Riaz Hussain Baig said the country would become a food and energy black hole in case of further delay in the construction of Kalabagh dam.

He said it was the only dam which could be built immediately because its design was ready. Construction of Bhasha dam was not advisable for it would threaten the Karakoram highway. Moreover, it could not be completed before 2020.

Forum secretary-general Salman Najeeb said that 25MAF water resources worth 40 to 50 billion dollar were being wasted every year due to non-availability of storage facilities.

He said that energy and water crisis was imminent in the event of further delay in the construction of new dams.Pakistan Wapda Hydro Electric Central Labour Union secretary-general Khurshid Ahmed and Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists former president I.H. Raashed said that heavy power loadshedding was imminent if the construction of combined cycle thermal power plant and dams was delayed.