Whether it is due to the country’s energy crisis or the burden of revolving debt, the people are protesting against power outages and heavy bills in some cities on a daily basis. Nowadays the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa citizens are facing hot weather conditions and they are often seen taking to the streets.

Muhammad Faheem, a resident of Peshawar, who joined one of these protests, says he had heard in 2008 that the government was launching plans to set up several hydroelectric plants and dams on the rivers here but 16 years have passed without positive news in this regard while loadshedding has increased manifold.

“Children are sleep-deprived, women can’t do any work while labourers are also in trouble,” says Faheem who wants to know why these hydel power projects are not being completed and when prolonged power outages end.

Only time will answer both questions of Faheem. However, Peshawar’s senior journalist Mushtaq Yousafzai believes that various governments have not taken interest in the projects of dams and hydel power projects, causing a delay in their completion. He says that although Gomal Zam, Golen Gol Power etc have been completed in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, work on the big projects including the Mohmand Dam is still in process. The energy crises could have been resolved swiftly if the central and provincial governments, particularly the federal government, had taken emergency measures.

Yousafzai believes that various mafias like the IPPs (independent power producers) and their supporters in the government positions are a major barrier to the completion of hydel projects. They consider low-cost power production a threat to them while the public suffers from power outages.

According to the 2022 report of the Private Power and Infrastructure Board (Ministry of Power, Power Division), the country currently has a total of 10,852MW of hydroelectric power generation capacity, of which approximately 5,789MW (more than 53pc) is generated in the KP.

The report states that about 27,000MW of small and large power projects can be installed at 123 locations in the province. Out of them, 25 projects are active while 14 locations are still being developed in the public sector.
The federal government is working on the construction of various hydel projects in KP to overcome the energy crisis and floods. The important projects include Gomal Zam Dam, Golen Gol Dam, Suki Kinari Hydropower Project, Mohmand Dam and Dasu Hydropower Project.

Gomal Zam Dam

Construction on this project started in July 2002 on the Gomal River in South Waziristan. It had the target of generating 17.4MW of electricity and irrigating 163,000 acres of land. Moreover, this project was also aimed at supplying sufficient water to the farmers of the Tank district by constructing the Warren Canal.

Former Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto had laid the foundations of this project in the early 1970s. It was supposed to be completed in 10 years but it took 47 years to complete. Its canal system started irrigating local lands seven years after its completion in 2011, i.e. in 2018.

According to the official Wapda (Water and Power Development Authority) website, the initial revised estimate for the Gomal Zam Dam project indicates that over Rs20.62bn have been invested in it. Of this amount, approximately Rs10bn were provided by the Government of Pakistan while more than Rs10bn were received through the foreign aid from USAID.

The authority says that the construction work was halted for two-and-a-half years due to the kidnapping and murder of a Chinese citizen in 2004. After contract withdrawal in 2006, a new contract was allotted to the Frontier Works Organization (FWO) in 2007, which completed the work in 2013. However, the canal and sub-canals were activated in 2019.

According to the Wapda, the Gomal Dam was severely affected by the 2022 flood, which forced the cessation of Unit Number 1 of the power station. Earlier in January 2022, Ecnec (Executive Committee of the National Economic Council) urged the approval of the second revision of the project, including PC-1, at an estimated cost of around Rs26bn. Opinions about the power generation capacity of the dam vary.

Farman Wazir (name changed), a resident of South Waziristan, claims that there was a problem in the 132kW line between the Gomal Zam powerhouse and the grid station, which has since been repaired and the power supply has been restored. The project is beneficial for the local population but loadshedding persists.

However, a Wapda official, on condition of anonymity, told Lok Sujag that the voltage drops due to a weak power transmission system from Gomal Zam Dam to Dera Ismail Khan, Tank and other districts.

Suki Kinari Hydropower Project

The construction of ‘Suki Kinari Hydropower Project’ commenced in January 2017 under China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) on the Kunhar River in Mansehra district, 248km from Islamabad. After its completion, the daily electricity production of the project will be 884MW.

According to the CPEC Secretariat, a Chinese company is financing this power project as an IPP (independent power producer) whose installed capacity is 870MW so far.

The general manager of the Suki Kinari project, He Xiongfei, says that the initial stages of its construction have been completed as planned. The dam body filling, diversion tunnel lining, pressure steel lining installation, unit installation and other major engineering works have been completed.

“This hydel project will generate 3.21bm kWh of annual eco-friendly electricity, saving fuel equivalent to about 1.3 million tonnes of coal and reducing carbon emissions by 2.5 million tonnes annually.”

Asif Ali, who lives in Mansehra, explains that the Suki Kinari project is expected to initiate power transmission from next month. Hopefully, it will save the locals from loadshedding.

Golen Gol Hydropower Project

The initial PC-I for the Golen Gol Power Project in Chitral was approved by the Ecnec in 2002. However, no progress has been made since then.

According to Wapda, the construction of Golen Gol project, under the first revised PC-1, commenced in February 2011 and was finally completed in January 2018. Under the supervision of Wapda, this power project was completed for Rs29bn, and it has a production capacity of 108MW.

Chitrali journalist and social activist Kamal Ahmed Jameel explains that this hydropower was built at Golen on a tributary of the Mastuj River, which is connected to the national grid through one of the world’s tallest transmission lines.

“Wapda laid a 180km long transmission line from Chitral to Timergara Grid Station, which connects to the national grid through snowy peaks, including the 10,004 foot high Lowari Top.”

He explains that flood risks were ignored in the construction design of the Golen Gol power plant. Consequently, the 2015 flood damaged it badly.

“The production capacity of this power project built with foreign and national capital, including that from Kuwait, has been reduced. Currently, it scarcely generates 15 to 20MW of electricity while in winter, it drops to less than 10MW.”

Mohmand Dam

Mohmand Dam is being constructed on the Swat River between Mohmand Bajaur and Charsadda districts at a distance of 48km from Peshawar city. The decision to build this dam was made in 2003 during the reign of Gen Musharraf with the total estimated cost of $1bn at that time. However, unfortunately, this project was delayed.

According to Wapda, the main objective of this dam is to prevent floods, irrigate an area of 16,000 acres, produce clean electricity and improve the socioeconomic conditions of the local people. The deadline for its completion is December 2025.

Wapda’s supervision work on the Mohmand Dam started on Sept 20, 2019. According to PC-1, its cost is estimated was around Rs3.1tr. The estimated height of the dam is 700 feet with the water storage capacity of 1.2 million acre-feet and 800MW of electricity production capacity.

While laying the foundation of the dam, former prime minister Imran Khan and former chief justice Saqib Nisar announced that the project would be completed by 2024. However, this period was extended later.

Gul Zareen Khan, a resident of Mohmand, says that the construction of this multi-purpose project has been delayed a lot. If it is still not completed within the stipulated period, many people will be disappointed.

Dasu Hydropower Project

According to Wapda, the work on the 4,320MW Dasu Hydropower Project on the Indus River in Kohistan District of KP started in June 2017. Here, 18pc of the RCC (roller-compacted concrete) dam and its adjacent hydraulic structures had been constructed by July 2022.

The severe floods of 2022 severely damaged the project, flooding the tunnels and halting work. The first phase of this project worth about Rs5.01tr is expected to be completed in 2027.

However, on June 21, 2023, the official website of Dasu Dam announced that the first phase of the ‘dam's concrete starter’ upstream had been completed.

According to the Wapda, another project of 128MW in Lower Kohistan, the Keyal Khwar Hydropower Project, was started in 2016 with the cooperation of a German company and the European Investment Bank. However, this contract was cancelled in 2017 and now tenders are being floated again.