ISLAMABAD: The Senate Standing Committee on Planning and Development on Friday expressed concern over delay in launching of water storage projects in Balochistan.

At a briefing held at the Parliament House, Minister for Planning and Development Ahsan Iqbal updated members of the committee on the progress of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CEPC) and other development projects.

The minister said the most important water project in Balochistan was Katchi canal.

His statement, however, angered Senator Nawabzada Saifullah Magsi who said the Katchi canal project was launched in 1998 and around Rs55 billion had been spent on it, but it was yet to be completed. He said it would be difficult for the project to take off because of a number of constraints, such as the topography of the area and the long length of the canal.

Senator Magsi said when he was provincial minister in 2007-8 a summary was moved to construct 200 small dams to collect floodwater. The federal government had told the Balochistan government that 100 dams would be constructed in the first phase. But, he added, only 20 dams were being claimed to have been constructed since then.

He said the Bolan dam was severely damaged in the 1976 floods and its reconstruction was stalled due to some problems. There was a long list of water projects which were incomplete for years, he added.

Officials of the Planning Commission informed the committee that 6,000 cusecs of water would be provided to Balochistan after completion of the Katchi canal project. But, they added, around Rs100 billion was required for the second phase of the project.

Secretary of the Planning Commission Yousaf Naseem Khokhar informed the committee that a survey was being conducted to determine the amount of floodwater in Balochistan.

At this, Senator Sirajul Haq said that during his tenure as provincial minister in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa he had come to know that a number of such surveys were already available. He said these were conducted by British rulers of India. There was also a topography survey on Balochistan, he said, adding that these documents could be used because they were accurate and practical.

The suggestion of Senator Haq, however, did not receive any response from the officials of the Planning Commission.

Briefing the committee on the CPEC project, Ahsan Iqbal said goods transportation from Gwadar to Quetta and Ratodero would begin in December.

He rejected reservations of senators from Balochistan on the CPEC project, saying that the province would be major beneficiary of the project.

Chairman of the Committee Tahir Mashhadi said for China the CPEC project was a business and Pakistan could benefit from this project only by having a proper planning and implementation strategy.

Ahsan Iqbal highlighted education and electricity projects being launched in Balochistan.

He said the government had completed 95 per cent of projects launched under the Public Sector Development Programme over the past two years.

Published in Dawn, August 20th, 2016