The Pakistan Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA) was established through an act of parliament in February 1958 for integrated and rapid development and maintenance of water and power resources of the Country. This includes controlling soil salinity and water logging to rehabilitate the affected land in order to strengthen the predominantly agricultural economy of the Country.
As per the charter, amended in March 1959 to transfer the existing electricity departments from the federating units to it, WAPDA has been assigned the duties of investigation, planning and execution of projects and schemes for :
Generation, Transmission and distribution of Power,
Irrigation, water supply and drainage,
Prevention of water logging and reclamation of saline land,
Flood control and
Inland navigation.
Under the later on development , vis-à-vis the "Energy Policy 1994", setting up of thermal power generation projects has been shifted to the private sector. Similarly, as a result of restructuring of the Power Wing in the recent years, the utility part has been corporatized into independent companies. This shift from convergence to divergence has given birth to 13 entities to operate in different zones. These are National Transmission and Dispatch Company (NTDC), four thermal power generation companies (GENCOs) and eight distribution companies (DISCOs). The present status of these companies is of corporate public limited entities under the Umbrella of WAPDA, ultimately to go privatized as planned., The Residual Power Wing is therefore now responsible for major hydroelectric power projects and schemes in operation and to come up along such up-coming private sector projects in the private sector under the reviewed "Energy Policy 2000".
» Neelum Jhelum River Diversion Tunnel
PAK - U.S STRATEGIC DIALOGUE
» WATER WORKING GROUP
As a part of the Strategic Dialogue in different sectors, technical experts from Pakistan and US met on June-17 in Islamabad to discuss the challenges and management of Pakistan's Water Resources. The dialogue also underscored the commitment of the United States to a long-term partnership with Pakistan, focused on improving the water and energy availability for the Pakistani people through institutional development and regulatory capacities dealing with drinking and irrigation water use.
The Government of Pakistan, in support of four Provincial Governments, FATA, Northern Areas and Azad Jamu Kashmir (AJK) has placed the highest priority to the development of water resources and generation of Hydel Power. Apart from initiating construction of Neelum Jehlum Hydel Power Project (969 MW) and under taking the 4,500 MW Diamer Basha Dam with a live storage of 6.1 MAF water, the Government plans the construction of 32 Small/Medium water reservoir dams in the four provinces and FATA.
