The Indus River (Meinzahn/Dreamstime)
The World Bank has allocated $1bn in extra funding to build Pakistan’s largest hydropower plant.
The Dasu Hydropower Plant will be on the Indus River near the town of Dasu in the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province. It will have a generating capacity of up to 5,400MW, when its two construction phases are finished.
The first will see it reach a generating capacity of 2,160MW, and the second will bring it to full capacity using the same dam.The extra funding will be spent on roads, irrigation, schools, medical facilities, and bridges.Rikard Liden, the World Bank’s team leader for the project, said: “(This is) an essential project in Pakistan’s efforts to reverse its dependence on fossil fuels and reach 60% renewable energy by 2031.”He said the extra money could save Pakistan some $1.8bn a year by replacing imported fuels, and would prevent around 5 million tons of carbon dioxide going into the atmosphere.
