No dams without consensus: Ashraf

LARKANA—Federal Minister for Water and Power Raja Pervez Ashraf on Thursday underlined that no dam will be constructed in the country against the opinion of masses.
While talking to host of Journalists on Thursday, Raja Pervez Ashraf said that in Karachi there is a sheer shortage of 3,000 megawatt power adding that in order to review the matter in detail an emergency meeting has been summoned on April 7 in this regard.
Federal Minister for Water and Power Raja Pervez said that at the moment country is passing through tough circumstances adding that we need to take massive steps to take out the country from it. Replying to a question, Federal Minister for Water and Power Raja Pervez said that Government has chalked out a special plan in view to cope with electricity dilemma. He further added that dams will be constructed in the country.
When power crisis last summer subsided after hitting hard the common men, industry and trade alike for months, people had expected that ěenlightened and moderateî government would take the issue of energy availability seriously.
However, it is quite obvious now that people were wrong expecting good from the government, as the government failed at all fronts in trying to tackle the energy crisis. The industries located in the northern provinces of the country have been affected badly by the shortage of gas and resultant load shedding since the beginning of this winter season in early December.
In those parts of the country the situation is as bad for a large number of industrial consumers of gas as it was for everyone during the last summer when the country went through the worst power crisis of its history.
Those who are concerned about the situation are predicting that the coming months and years are going to be much more difficult for the industries because of the energy crisis that has gripped the country. Power shortage has always been there. Of late, we have started experiencing gas shortages despite being self-sufficient for decades in natural gas. Oil prices are still higher although they have fallen by around $29 per barrel in recent months. We have nowhere to go.
The Sui Northern Gas Pipeline Limited (SNGPL) has faced a shortfall of 700 million cubic feet per day (mmcfd), as temperature fell below zero Celsius, and has had to meet the shortfall by suspending supplies to some 300 industrial units in Punjab and NWFP.
The company saved around 450 mmcfd by suspending supplies to 11 cement units, two fertilizer factories and captive power producers, and diverted the same to domestic consumers.
While the cement units can bear this cut in supply of gas by cutting their production, as there has been a glut in the market following massive expansion in the sector, the suspension of supply to fertilizer industry at this moment will be bad enough for the country.
National Fertilizer Development Corporation has already predicted a shortfall for the Rabi crops and if the gas supply to fertilizer units continued to be suspended, there would be massive shortage in the market in the coming weeks when the demand is at its peak.
SNGPL also had to refuse to meet the demand for 300 mmcfd by Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda), which it usually obliges during summer when the company has sufficient supplies.
January has always been a difficult month for Wapda because of decrease in releases from major dams and cut in gas supply to power plants. Conversion of a large number of automobiles to CNG has further increased pressure on gas supply.
The relevant officials say the demand is rising continuously, an evidence of which is the fact that the SNGPL faced a shortfall of 400 mmcfd last year and it has gone up to 700 mmcfd this year. The situation seems to worsen next year when four more gas-driven power units - Safire, Saif, Orient and Savari - would start operating, requiring 220 mmcfd gas. This demand would on top of the usual 12 per cent load growth, which would add a load of another 200 mmcfd.—Agencies