PM Imran meets WAPDA chairman, emphasises urgency of building dams

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan met with Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA) chairman General (retd) Muzammil Hussain at the PM Office on Monday.

During the meeting, the prime minister emphasised the urgency of building the Diamer Bhasha and Mohmand Dams. “I may supervise dams project myself, given the urgency,” Prime Minister Khan tweeted.

In his tweet, the prime minister said there was a total outflow of 45 million acre-feet (MAF) in Pakistan out of which 80 per cent was in the three months and only 20 per cent in the rest of the nine months.

The prime minister added that there were only 185 dams in Pakistan of which only two were large ones. “In contrast, India has 5,000 dams and China has 84,000 dams including 4,000 large ones.”

Prime Minister Khan stressed there was a need to avert the looming water crisis confronting Pakistan. 

In his address to the nation on September 7, Prime Minister Khan termed the water crisis to be the biggest issue of the country and sought assistance from overseas Pakistanis to help overcome it.

"The largest problem is the water issue in the country," he maintained.

Khan said that it was crucial for Pakistan to build dams as failure to do so could be detrimental to its future generations.