Navigating Water Challenge

Many countries are coming up with innovative water development strategies to secure their long-term interests. This explains unprecedentedly huge investments in research on water development as well as construction of huge water reservoirs.

Nowhere is this dynamic more in play than in Pakistan, a water-stressed country. The decreasing per capita water availability has made Pakistan vulnerable of being a ‘water scarce’ country, thereby pushing the red button for the country’s policymakers and planners. Given the geographical fault-lines Pakistan is located at, there is all the more likelihood of climate change contributing to the increased melting of glaciers. A country that braved devastating floods in 2010-11, and recently in 2013, and resultant losses of billions of dollars to economy besides a loss of precious lives, faces the probability of recurring floods caused by excessive melting of glaciers for next many decades.

In order to deal with the twin challenges of mitigating the flood and conserving water for hydropower production and agricultural use, Pakistan must build new water reservoirs, besides enhancing the storage capacity of the existing dams.

In this context, recently Mangla Dam has become the largest water reservoir of the country. The Mangla Dam has achieved the milestone of storing over 7 MAF of water thereby surpassing Tarbela Dam which has live storage capacity of 6.5 MAF. It is, undoubtedly, an unprecedented development. The news came at a time when floods had caused large-scale devastation, especially, in South Punjab and Sindh.

After the completion of this project, the Mangla Lake can now store water up to 1242 feet, which means there is still a water storage capacity of 8 feet.

The water experts and MET office have predicted that given the weather forecast, the Mangla Dam can be filled up to its optimum level. If the dam achieves this milestone, it will be able to store about 7.4 MAF of water.

The Dam, originally having a water storage capacity of up to 1202 feet, was raised by 30 feet. Consequently, its water storage capacity is increased from 4.5 MAF to 7.4 MAF. In other words, the completion of raising project has enabled the Mangla Lake to store 2.29 MAF of additional water. Besides contributing 644 million low-cost additional electricity units from the existing powerhouse, the Dam will play a leading role in flood mitigation as well as development of agricultural sector.

 The successful completion of this Project is an impetus to the efforts to increase water conservation capacity of existing dams. Equally significant is the filling of additional water up to optimum capacity of the raised dam. The credit for this milestone, undoubtedly, goes to the government. Under its vision of water sector development, the Ministries of Water & Power, Kashmir Affairs & GB, Governments of AJK and Punjab, and WAPDA made concerted efforts to accomplish the objective successfully.

However, the rehabilitation of the Mangla Dam affectees has not been completed yet due to shortage of funds though most work has been completed. Resettlement of affectees is a humanitarian issue and the government should grant sufficient funds for their complete rehabilitation.

It is a matter of immense satisfaction that the stagnation suffered by the Pakistani water reservoirs in terms of their water storage capacity following the completion of Tarbela dam in 1974 has been broken now after a lapse of 39 years. The Mangla Dam Raising Project represents the expansion in the water conservation capacity of any of Pakistani dams for the first time since 1974.

Increase in additional water storage capacity of 2.9 MAF in Mangla Lake is not a small achievement. However, we need as many reservoirs as we can to store water. Given the imperatives of expanding economy and developing agriculture, availability of low-cost, environment-friendly and affordable energy is a must if Pakistan has to make sustained progress.

The government should focus on construction of big dams as part of water security strategy. In doing so, it must have political will, technical expertise of relevant organizations and, above all, availability of funds. As the first National Power Policy 2013 has made it amply clear, the present government has a spelled-out clear vision to make Pakistan self-sufficient in energy resources and water sector development. WAPDA’s expertise in development of water projects is established. The government should, therefore, endeavour to ensure timely availability of funds for completion of water projects and construction of hydrpowr projects including Diamer Basha and Dasu dams. If the government succeeds in doing so, it will be remembered as a big feather in its cap, an achievement it will rightfully take pride in.