LAHORE, Jan 9: Adviser to the Prime Minister on Finance and Economic Affairs Dr Salman Shah has said construction of dams is necessary to sustain economic growth.
Inaugurating the two-day Water Asia 2007 International Conference and Expo at the Alhamra Art Centre on Tuesday, he said water was available in Pakistan only for a short time in the year and needed to be stored for the future usage. Pakistan should build a number of dams to increase its water storage capacity as presently it could store water only for 30 days whereas Australia and the US could store water for 900 days.
He said it was unfortunate that the country had not been able to build new dams for quite a long time because the issue had been politicised. The present government had, however, decided to build five major dams by 2016, he said.
A dam could be built for $5 billion to $6 billion and could add three per cent to the GDP which was equal to the contribution of a gas field. The water projects required to be managed properly because $70 billion to 80 billion had been invested in the same.
He said a double digit growth was required in the power sector as the economy growing at the rate of 10 to 12 per cent. Water availability was an important component of economic growth and the construction of dams contributed to maximum reduction in poverty according to a World Bank study.
He said the economy was growing at seven per cent per annum and the ratio of investment to the GDP had increased 20 per cent during the past four years. There was a tremendous increase in demand for goods and services and opportunities for domestic and foreign investment due to an expansion of market with the growth of the economy. The Public Sector Development Programme allocation had also been increased from Rs400 billion to Rs430 billion, he said.
He said economic growth was constrained by insufficient human resource and infrastructure development. The government had increased allocation for education to develop human resource potential for the demographic dividend as 55 per cent population of the country was under 19 years of age with potential to remain productive for the next 30 to 40 years.
Technical Adviser to the Punjab Government Engineer Chaudhry Mazhar Ali said three-fourth of the earth was covered by oceans, but fresh water for human consumption and agriculture was available three per cent. Pakistan was a semi-arid country with warm climate and generally low rainfall with an annual average of 240 millimetre. Agriculture was the backbone of Pakistan’s economy as its two third of the population in rural areas was dependent on it.
He said the agriculture sector contributed 24 per cent to the GDP, absorbed a half of the labour force and was the base of the three fourth of exports.
He said that irrigation consumed about 96 per cent of the water available in the country while municipal and industrial uses accounted for 4 per cent. Agriculture would continue to dominate the water requirements as a major user because the crop water requirement met by direct rainfall did not exceed 15 per cent. The Indus Basin Irrigation System had steadily grown into the world’s largest single integrated irrigation network, he added.
About 103 million acre feet water, of 157 million acre feet, flowing in rivers was currently being diverted annually for irrigation, he said.
He said Pakistan had 77 million acre cultivable lands with only 36 million acre benefiting from canal irrigation. Per capita availability of water had decreased from 2,650 cubic meters in 1951 to 1,200 cubic meters in 2006. The minimum per capita index of water requirement to avoid being a water shortage country was 1,000 cubic meters.
He said annual river water diversions into the canals of the four provinces varied from 77 to 108 million acre feet depending on flows in rivers. An annual average of about 35 million acre feet of river water flowed unutilised into the sea. The water flowing into the sea exceeded 90 million acre feet in years of good rainfall. Surplus water available for 60 to 100 days in summer was an invaluable resource provided that reservoirs were built for its storage for irrigation and hydropower generation. The hydel-thermal power mix of 28:72 was the reverse of the ideal hydel-thermal mix of 70:30. Injection of cheap hydropower through multi-purpose storages was essential to balance the increase in cost of electricity due to heavy induction of thermal power in the system.
He said Mangla, Tarbela and Chashma were also losing one million acre feet storage capacity every six years due to sedimentation. The three water reservoirs would lose 34 per cent of storage capacity by 2010. The loss of 5.6 million acre feet would be equal to storage capacity of one mega dam.
He said Pakistan also needed new dams because it had a per capita water storage capacity of only 150 cubic meters against over 5,000 cubic meters in the US and Australia and over 2,200 cubic meters in China. The existing storage capacity was less than 40 per cent of annual river flows against 40 per cent average world storage capacity and was decreasing due to sedimentation and increasing population. Unregulated and uncontrolled exploitation of ground water for irrigation was giving rise to problems like falling groundwater levels and deterioration of quality. About 20 million tonnes of salt was also accumulating in the system every year.
Organising Committee Chairman Engineer Mian Fazal Ahmad said the conference had been organised to discuss ways and means for sustainable management of water resources.