ISLAMABAD, April 27: Pakistan on Friday sought $17 billion from international lenders for the construction of Diamer-Bhasha, Kalabagh and Akhori dams by 2016 to avert flood, drought and energy crisis.

"By 2010, Pakistan will be among the most water-stressed countries, with less than 1000 cubic metre per capita water availability," said Wapda Chairman Tariq Hameed. He urged development partners to give priority to Pakistan’s irrigation and storage infrastructure.

Water and Power Minister Liaquat Ali Jatoi, who presided over a session on "Water, Power and Prosperity" of the Pakistan Development Forum, appealed to bilateral lenders and international financial institutions, including the World Bank, ADB and IDB, to come forward and provide funding for big reservoirs so that people in the country could benefit from cheap electricity and food.

He said the electricity demand had swelled to 10 per cent in the country and to meet this challenge the country needed a lot of investment in the hydel sector. He said the government this year had allocated Rs48 billion for the water sector and planned Rs60 billion allocation next year.

Mr David Grey, senior water advisor to the World Bank in Pakistan, stressed the need for focusing on benefit sharing, rather than water sharing and said that there was a need to develop inter-provincial and community level mechanism. He asked the Pakistan government to explore hydel potential and go for Ghazi Barotha-like projects between the proposed Diamer-Bhasha dam and Terbela dam which could produce about 8000-9000 MW of electricity.

He said Pakistan needed to invest in water management and reforms and undertake the Indus management reforms also. He advised the government to strengthen the federal role by adopting a national reform agenda to build trust, equity, capacity and efficiency, besides enhancing reform and implementation capacity of the provinces.