WB ready to invest in large dams: 10-fold raise in funding promised
By Khaleeq Kiani
ISLAMABAD, Sept 19: The World Bank has said it will be ready to offer financial support if Pakistan decides to build large dams to avert a looming water crisis. “Pakistan has to invest, and invest soon, in costly and contentious new large dams,” John Briscoe, the bank’s senior water adviser for South Asia, said.
“If and when the government of Pakistan decides to build major new dams and asks for funds, the World Bank will be pleased to consider extending help,” he said at the launch of “Pakistan’s water economy running dry” report on Monday.
The report prepared in consultation with various ministries and termed as a “near final draft” promised to increase funding to Pakistan by about 10 times to $1 billion over a period of five years compared with the last decade.
Any funding for large dams would be over and above this WB country assistance strategy but it would be extended through the bank’s commercial lending programme under the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) terms instead of concessional International Development Assistance (IDA), he explained.
In response to a question whether the bank was ready to finance controversial projects like Kalabagh dam, the World Bank advisor said there was not a single project in the world that hadn’t run into opposition, but it was up to the government and people of Pakistan to decide its fate. As far as the World Bank was concerned, he said, it would consider providing as much funding as required.
Painting a gloomy picture of the country’s storage capacity in comparison with other countries, the report said Pakistan was already over-stressed and “once again the survival of a modern and growing Pakistan is threatened by water”.
“Pakistan has very little water storage capacity. The United States and Australia have over 5,000 cubic metres of storage capacity per inhabitant and China has 2,200 cubic metres, while Pakistan has only 150 cubic metres of storage capacity per capita.”
“Pakistan can barely store 30 days of water in the Indus basin,” he said. “If something wrong happens with the Indus basin, Pakistan has no alternative to feed its agriculture.” Therefore, he said, there “is no latitude for error in contrast to other countries where mishaps in one river system are cushioned by opportunities in other places”.
The World Bank also stressed the need for improving water management, governance and introducing whole-hearted water sector reforms. Pakistan, he said, needed roughly $10 billion a year to upgrade and maintain its existing water structure in Pakistan. Punjab alone needs $5 billion to maintain the quality of its existing water structure.
During the presentation of the draft of the WB’s country assistance strategy for the water sector, the representatives of Sindh came down heavily on Mr Briscoe for not taking the Sindh government into confidence and easing their apprehensions on various water projects.
The former irrigation and power secretary of Sindh, Idrees Rajput, lashed out at the bank for suggesting an increase in Abiana (water tax) from Rs150 per hectare to Rs450 since he said it would create a lot of problems for poor farmers’ community and help increase poverty in Pakistan.
Abdul Majid Qazi, president of the Sindh Irrigation Chamber, said that if the country has surplus water after meeting the provinces’ water requirements as per the water accord 1991 and after releasing the 10 MAF water below Kotri to stop sea erosion, then it should go for a water reservoir only for meeting irrigational requirements.
He said the provincial assemblies of Sindh, NWFP and Balochistan had already opposed the construction of Kalabagh dam.
During the presentation NGO representatives said the WB has not mentioned in the CAS draft that it had made the draft keeping in view the guidelines of the World Commission on Dams (WCD). Mr Briscoe said that the WCD has 26 guidelines for constructing dams and 26 guidelines were difficult to apply while constructing the dams.
With regard to mediation between Pakistan and India on the Indus Waters Treaty, he said that the World Bank had not played the role of mediator but had only been facilitating the two countries in resolving their water problems.
He recommended that an independent auditor be appointed to audit the water accounts among the four federating units in Irsa while citing the example of South Australia which had appointed an independent water auditor from abroad. He said there was a trust deficit among the provinces in Pakistan and no province would accept the water auditor from any province, so it was better to follow South Australia’s example in this regard.
The World Bank also listed some sobering facts about Pakistan’s water requirements.
The report said the bank’s assistance would support four pillars of the water sector. First, asset development and management: Pakistan has a large endowment (with an estimated replacement value of $300 billion) of water resources infrastructure, mostly owned and managed by the provinces, and much now quite old.
The bank-funded projects will make major investments in the rehabilitation of some critical assets (including barrages) and will help put in place asset management plans which will set priorities for asset rehabilitation and maintenance, make explicit the requirements for public and user financing, and develop efficient institutional arrangements for rehabilitating and maintaining this infrastructure.
The bank will also continue its support for developing and implementing a drainage and salt management strategy and investments, including small dams, minor irrigation and groundwater management in barani areas outside of the Indus Basin.
One major issue likely to emerge in the period covered by this CAS is possible bank engagement in developing and co-financing major new Indus Basin storage and hydro projects, if and when the government makes such a decision. The government is actively addressing some of the major issues which have been raised about a new dam on the Indus, including transparent implementation of the 1991 Water Accord and environmental flows into the delta.
In discussions with the government it has been agreed that the bank could be involved with the usual provisions that any such project met the bank’s normal technical, economic, social and environmental standards, and that these investments were part of an overall programme which included institutional reforms and investments at federal, provincial, canal command and farm levels to ensure better use of water.
