'Non-payment to IPPs reason for power crisis': former WAPDA chairman

[Naveed Yaseen]

LAHORE (January 28 2009): Former Chief Minister of NWFP and former Chairman, Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) Engineer Shamsulmulk on Tuesday said that there is no electricity shortage in the country and the present crisis is the result of non-payment to the Independent Power Producers.

He was talking to reporters at a seminar "Electric Power Stability And Requirements of Large Dams," organised by Institution of Engineers Pakistan (IEP). Shams said that the solution of our power crisis lies in building hydel power plants and big dams such as Kalabagh and Bhasha because the electricity produced by hydel power plants was cheaper then thermal power. He said that Kalabagh Dam has the capacity of generating power which otherwise can be generated by 750 small dams adding that Pakistan doesn't have the sites for constructing these dams.

Earlier, in his address to the seminar, Shamsulmulk said that God has blessed Pakistan with sufficient water resources and there is need to properly manage these resources. He said that the problem is not about the quantity of electricity but it is about the cost of electricity. He advised the government to speak the truth and don't hide the facts.

Chairman Chief Ministers Task Force on Agriculture Colonel Shuja Khanzada (Retd) said that despite problems of electricity, water and pesticides we have bumper wheat crop due to timely rains. He stressed proper management of water resources.

In his address of welcome, IEP President Engineer Aftab Islam Agha said that if the present power crisis persists, the country may face acute food shortage next year because neither we have river water nor are we getting underground water due to non-pumping arrangements in the absence of electricity. Agha said that despite being aware of the projected demand of electricity in the country, no concrete measures are being taken to curb the widening demand and supply gap for the last many years. The crisis has affected the manufacturing sector and reduced its growth, which resulted in decline in the collection of revenue also.

Agha further said that the construction of Kalabagh Dam is not a political matter, nor is it a regional or provincial matter. It is purely a technical matter of national importance and need to be left to the engineers, rather than political whims.

In his key note address, Chairman of the Seminar Committee Engineer Chaudhry Muhammad Yaqub said that the aim of the seminar is to discuss other sources of energy such as nuclear power technology, generation of electricity from renewable energy resources ie solar and wind and generation from fuel, coal and oil.

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