A second round of supplementary funding totaling $1 billion was granted by the World Bank’s Board of Executive Directors on Monday for the DASU Hydropower Stage I (DHP I) Project. With this funding, hydropower electricity supply will be expanded, local residents will have better access to socioeconomic services, and the Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA) will be better equipped to plan for future hydropower projects.
According to Najy Benhassine, the World Bank’s Country Director for Pakistan, “Pakistan’s energy sector suffers from multiple challenges to achieving affordable, reliable, and sustainable energy.” One of the greatest hydropower locations in the world, the DASU Hydropower Project site is revolutionary for Pakistan’s energy industry. The DHP will help “green” the energy industry and bring down the price of electricity while leaving a very tiny environmental footprint.
About 8 kilometers from Dasu Town, the provincial capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Upper Kohistan District, lies the DHP run-of-river project on the Indus River. When it’s finished, it will have 4,320–5,400 MW of installed capacity. The project is being developed gradually. DHP-I can produce 2,160 MW of cheap renewable energy annually, or 12,225 gigawatt hours (GWh). From the same dam, the DHP-II will add 9,260–11,400 GWh annually.
According to Task Team Leader for the Project Rikard Liden, “DHP-I is an essential project in Pakistan’s efforts to reverse its dependence on fossil fuels and reach 60 percent renewable energy by 2031.” By replacing imported fuels, the second additional financing may save Pakistan an estimated $1.8 billion a year and mitigate about 5 million tons of carbon dioxide. It will also make it easier to expand the availability of energy. DHP-I is expected to yield an economic return of about 28% per year.
The extra funding will help sustain socioeconomic projects in Upper Kohistan, especially those related to jobs, healthcare, education, and transportation. With the help of this project, adult literacy has improved by an estimated 30% since 2012; in the same time period, boys’ schooling has increased by 16% and girls’ schooling by 70%.
With a special focus on women beneficiaries, the project will also carry out ongoing community development initiatives on roads, irrigation schemes, schools, medical facilities, mosques, bridges, solar energy systems, science labs, and libraries. These initiatives include the establishment of free healthcare clinics and camps staffed by women doctors and nurses, trainings for female health workers, workshops on livelihoods and literacy for women, and health and hygiene awareness-raising campaigns.