LAHORE, Pakistan Pakistan will launch by the end of 2001 the first stage of a vast water development scheme that officials hope will end shortages and eventually support a population several times the current 140 million.

The head of the Pakistan water and power development authority (WAPDA) rejected both suggestions that there are inadequate resources to exploit and that the current three-dry years in succession reflect a fundamental change in the weather.

"In the 11-year water cycle we have here in Pakistan, there is sufficient water available in the system," General Zulfiqar Ali Khan said in an interview with Reuters television.

"On an 11-year basis almost 38 million acre feet (45.6 billion cubic meters) of water flows to the sea every year. In this present cycle it was unfortunate that the dry years came consecutively."

Under the scheme, starting with six fast-track projects, the powerful government agency hopes by 2025 to more than quadruple existing water storage capacity and bring another 22 million acres (9.9 million hectares) of land under cultivation.

"Today we have only 14 million acre feet (16.8 billion cubic meters) of storage and we are in a position to feed the present population," said Khan, an army engineer who has headed WAPDA for three years.

"We are contemplating creating 65 million acre feet (78 billion cubic meters), several times the present capacity, so we should be able to support a population several times the present size."

The first phase of the program, Khan said at WAPDA headquarters in the Punjab capital Lahore, is six projects just to restore capacity that has been disappearing in reservoirs from sediment in the quarter century since Pakistan's last major water project was completed.

"The total costing is about $3.7 billion spread over five years," Khan said. "This is not a great deal of money. There will be sufficient funds.

"The government of Pakistan has made a commitment to making or getting the financial resources. They are also talking to some of the friendly countries concerning this."

In a reflection of the regional bickering that has bogged down larger schemes, the projects are spread around the country.

Khan is confident that economic benefits, and quick returns from the investment, will be sufficient that no government following the current military regime would alter the plans.