World Bank approves 600 million dollars for Dasu, 100 million dollars for Sindh Water Irrigation

[Hyde]

The problem is not generating capacity. The real problems are theft, circular debt and mismanagement. Given the rate of adding generation and increase in power demand, and the ongoing issues I have mentioned, means that my position is realistic, not pessimistic. Loadshedding will remain.

It is partially true but which developing country in the world has more than 50% of its electricity generated from Thermal Power stations? It raises the cost to unbearable figure. Yes there is electricity theft and line losses in Pakistan but so are they in India and many other countries in the world. The reason why we generate electricity in losses is the high cost of generating electricity additionally supported by power theft and line losses.

When your cost of production will drop from 18-22 rupees to around 8 rupees, add the figure electricity theft and line losses and it would still be around 16 rupees perhaps. The future seems bright as the intentions of the government looks promising

 

[VCheng]

It is partially true but which developing country in the world has more than 50% of its electricity generated from Thermal Power stations? It raises the cost to unbearable figure. Yes there is electricity theft and line losses in Pakistan but so are they in India and many other countries in the world. The reason why we generate electricity in losses is the high cost of generating electricity additionally supported by power theft and line losses.

When your cost of production will drop from 18-22 rupees to around 8 rupees, add the figure electricity theft and line losses and it would still be around 16 rupees perhaps. The future seems bright as the intentions of the government looks promising

Promising intentions? Yes! However, it is prudent to give more credence to actual results, which, thus far, do not look promising at all.

 

[Hyde]

from official website of World Bank
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World Bank Approves Dasu Hydropower Stage I Project

WASHINGTON- June 10, 2014- The World Bank’s Board of Executive Directors approved on Tuesday a financing package from the International Development Association (IDA), the World Bank Group’s grant and low-interest arm, to help expand hydro-electricity generation in Pakistan through the development of the Dasu Hydropower Stage-I Project (DHP-I). The package consists of an IDA Credit of $588.4 million and an IDA Partial Credit Guarantee (PCG) of $460 million to help mobilize commercial financing for the project.

DHP-I would have 2,160 megawatt (MW) hydropower plant on the main Indus River, which can be expanded to 4,320 MW in future with low additional cost. The project, in addition to facilitating growth and development in Pakistan, will also help build the Water and Power Development Authority’s (WAPDA) capacity to harness the vast hydropower resources of the country in a sustainable manner.

“Dasu Hydropower Project is important for helping the people of Pakistan to reduce their carbon footprint and make electric power generation more sustainable,", said Rachid Benmessaoud, World Bank Country Director for Pakistan. “The program is an important part of the transformational energy initiative of Pakistan, in which the support from across the World Bank Group is focused on helping Pakistan's energy sector out of its crisis and onto a more sustainable path that supports economic growth.”

DHP-I is a run-of-river project located on the Indus River about 240 km upstream from the Tarbela dam, close to Dasu town, in Kohistan district. It is an important element of the government’s strategy to restore Pakistan’s energy sector to a role that will effectively support long-term economic growth. It is a strategic investment that: (i) improves energy security and affordability through a structural shift to a low cost, low carbon fuel mix and reduced cost of electricity generation; (ii) reduces the sector deficit and saves foreign exchange of the Government of Pakistan by displacing high cost imported fuel; and (iii) builds the institutional capacity of WAPDA to harness the hydropower potential of the country in a sustainable manner, in particular the development of the Indus Cascade; and (iv) provides a financing and investment model that can be followed for other large hydropower projects in Pakistan.

The direct beneficiaries of DHP would be the millions of energy users, including industry, households and farmers who would get more electricity at lower cost and suffer fewer blackouts. The project would provide more electricity during the summer months when capacity shortages are most severe. Non-users would benefit indirectly because of higher productivity and employment, particularly in the industrial sector.

“Dasu Hydropower Project will kick start the development of the Indus Cascade that is crucial for reducing the overall cost of electricity generation based on domestic resources,”said Masood Ahmad, Task Team Leader and Lead Water Resource Specialist. “The Project would provide benefits to most sectors of the economy in Pakistan, and the population as a whole would benefit directly or indirectly.”

The DHP-I cost is estimated at about $4.2 billion and the financing plan consists of IDA credits, IDA Partial Credit Guarantees and contributions from WAPDA and the NTDC. This is the first attempt by the World Bank Group to finance a large infrastructure project on a sequential basis through a combination of credits and guarantees to mobilize the full financing over the construction period. The credit is financed from the International Development Association (IDA), the World Bank Group’s grant and low-interest arm. It will be on standard IDA terms, with a maturity of 25 years, including a grace period of 5 years.

Source: World Bank Approves Dasu Hydropower Stage I Project

 

[WishLivePak]

The loan which you take has to be returned one day. How are you going to repay it?

The dams you are building will generate electricity and irrigate land. You will charge money for consumers and pay back the loans and will ultimately be free of loans after you have fulfilled commitments. 1 dam that you make can probably be free of cost after 10 or so years of its operation and whatever money you save afterwards can be used for building schools, more dams or whatever you want. It is not the case for schools

PS: I am advocate of having higher education and health budget but it does not decrease the importance of dams, the economic cycle for our country.

We can have these dams and so forth, but lets not wait for 10 years before investing properly in education. Wasn't education budget decreased?

Also you can charge money at school as well. Countries might even forgive loans or offer grants, if real week is shown.

We need dams and etc, but we also need education. We lived 10 years or more with this load shedding, we can live more. Children are more important than AC. It's not like taking a seperate loan for education will plunge us in darkness.

 

[VCheng]

I wish someone donates $700m towards education... Assuming it costs $100,000 to build a REALLY good school, with 700m, we can have 7,000 schools.

Of course we can make far more. Buying books, computers, softwares, furniture and so forth in bulk can vastly reduce price. Plus some regions will require cheaper, smaller schools. Gov't owns a lot of land, so extra money saved there. So we can get some 10,000-15,000 schools being made within a year or two.

Yes we need bijli, but we need loans for education.. We can have school built in a year vs this dam in 10 years. How many kids will be out of school for 10 years?

Wouldn't it be better if Pakistan spends some of its own money on educating its children instead of begging for foreign donations?

 

[WishLivePak]

Read you post again

"Yes we need bijli, but we need loans for education.. We can have school built in a year vs this dam in 10 years. How many kids will be out of school for 10 years?"

We need bijli but loan for education is more important? One need energy, bijli to build and operate schools. Forget about building new school, Pakistan can't even run already build schools properly because of bijli shortage.

u make school with trucks, not bijli. most schools are without chairs, roof, toilet etc...

 

[tarrar]

Mean while in Pakistan, PML-N & PPP are

Let the corruption begin

 

[Hyde]

We can have these dams and so forth, but lets not wait for 10 years before investing properly in education. Wasn't education budget decreased?

Also you can charge money at school as well. Countries might even forgive loans or offer grants, if real week is shown.

We need dams and etc, but we also need education. We lived 10 years or more with this load shedding, we can live more. Children are more important than AC. It's not like taking a seperate loan for education will plunge us in darkness.

The education budget for provinces is not even announced yet. We are yet to see how much the actual amount will be invested on education

Education is important but dams are also important. Imagine if Diamer-Bhasha is built, you can irrigate millions of acre feet of land, generate at least 3-4 times cheaper electricity to what we are paying right now, clean water and grow millions of tons of extra crop resulting in cheaper food in the domestic market and increasing exports. It will also help reduce the circular debt in long run after the cost of production will be reduced, these are just few benefits I am highlighting

Education is must and higher budget must be allocated for that but it does not reduce the importance of other projects. For me building Dam is the jugular vein of Pakistan's economy and future.

 

[WishLivePak]

Wouldn't it be better if Pakistan spends some of its own money on educating its children instead of begging for foreign donations?

Why not beg for something good? We're begging already. And if we had money, we wouldn't be begging.

athere is some work being done, but we need much more. It's not like 500 kids are out of school, but hundreds of thousands.

The education budget for provinces is not even announced yet. We are yet to see how much the actual amount will be invested on education

Education is important but dams are also important. Imagine if Diamer-Bhasha is built, you can irrigate millions of acre feet of land, generate at least 3-4 times cheaper electricity to what we are paying right now, clean water and grow millions of tons of extra crop resulting in cheaper food in the domestic market and increasing exports. It will also help reduce the circular debt in long run after the cost of production will be reduced, these are just few benefits I am highlighting

Education is must and higher budget must be allocated for that but it does not reduce the importance of other projects. For me building Dam is the jugular vein of Pakistan's economy and future.

yes, keep building dams, but don't wait till 10 years for it to finish and than look at education. Bijli must be produced, so shall be education.

When you don't have education, you have people going around blowing stuff. Rapes, honor killings and so forth. But i guess, some want bijli more than these things to stop. To each its own i guess.

 

[VCheng]

Why not beg for something good? We're begging already. And if we had money, we wouldn't be begging.
athere is some work being done, but we need much more. It's not like 500 kids are out of school, but hundreds of thousands.

Actually, it is millions upon millions of children who have never attended a school. Millions. And begging is effective only if other people see the effort too. Begging when we are building nuclear weapons and our elite live lavishly tax-free is not going to yield the results you are hoping for.

 

[VCheng]

It would be interesting to see the World Bank official stance on its previously stated need for an NOC from India. I know that Dar Sahib has said that it is not needed any more, but has the WB commented on this aspect of the deal?

 

[Dubious]

what do you mean?

Yaar aywien tou nai muft ka maal ara...we will need to pay back with interest so just wondering if anyone is keeping track of money in money out money used money disappearing (if any or is it being used sensibly)?

 

[VCheng]

Dams are good, but the real problems remain unchecked:


Power sector close to collapse under Rs513.37 billion debt - thenews.com.pk

Power sector close to collapse under Rs513.37 billion debt
PM annoyed over appalling situation

Khalid MustafaThursday, June 12, 2014
From Print Edition

ISLAMABAD: Amid the unprecedented power shortages of over 7,000MW, Pakistan’s power sector receivables have risen to a whopping Rs513.368 billion in the first 10 months of the current financial year 2013-14, threatening collapse of the entire system.

According to the latest documents on receivables as of April 2014 available with The News, the provinces are required to pay Rs87.256 billion that include Sindh’s Rs54.547 billion, KP Rs20.540 billion, Punjab Rs6.619 billion, Balochistan Rs5.550 billion and the AJK’s Rs36.693 billion.

The shocking fact is that the government has failed to collect electricity bills from private sector consumers as this sector has emerged as the biggest defaulter owing a mammoth Rs345.386 to the Pakistan Electric Power Company (Pepco).

The document also unveils that the domestic sector in Fata is required to pay Rs32 billion, which has also been included in the head of private sector consumers.
..............................

 

[Jango]

Dams are good, but the real problems remain unchecked:

Stop wasting your time.

People don't care about the real problems.

They just want instant projects...Metro Bus and flyovers are the way to go in Pakistan! That too in record time.

 

[VCheng]

Stop wasting your time.

People don't care about the real problems.

They just want instant projects...Metro Bus and flyovers are the way to go in Pakistan! That too in record time.

Oh I know. But someone still has to speak the truth, whether anybody listens to it or not.