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Kalabagh Dam fact sheet
By the time it is ready to store water, the Mangla and Tarbela dams will have lost their capacity to store water.
LAHORE: The Kalabagh Dam will not need any water additional to what already is in the system. By the time it is ready to store water, the Mangla and Tarbela dams will have lost their capacity to store water, which will be equal to the capacity of the Kalabahgh Dam, designed to store surplus floodwater without impinging on the normal flow of the Indus. Punjab and Sindh will get equal shares from it despite the vast difference in their population and area under cultivation. Without the left bank canal at Kalabagh Dam, north Punjab will not get any water from any existing or future dams built on the Indus. Two-thirds of north Punjab will revert from being irrigated to barani with a 50 per cent loss in national food production.
Without the right bank canal at the Kalabagh Dam, 800,000 acres in Dera Ismail Khan will not get water through gravity flow. Water pumped from the Chashma barrage will cost Rs5,000 per acre per year and will irrigate less than 300,000 acres. Sindh will get all the advantages of water and power without the loss of even one acre of land or the displacement of even one person.
Engr Khurshid Anwer
Published in The Express Tribune, July 27th, 2012.
Reader Comments (13)
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Kalabagh dam will have to benefit only South Punjab regions. South Punjab have already given verdict that they are with PPP and PPP have categorically said that KalaBagh dam can never be made. So tell me if People of South Punjab who have to be benefited with this dam dont want this dam and are vehemently supporting PPP in every respect then why others will clamor. Kalabagh dam will have to transform barren lands of South Punjab regions into Green Fields but people of South Punjab dont want it. If South Punjab is serious in making Kalabagh Dam then they should ask their PPP representatives who had already said that Kalabagh dam can never be made.
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Khursheed Anwer is continuously telling lies and creating hatred against people of Sindh by distorting facts. As per 1991-Water Accord, 10 MAF water downstream Kotri was to be released to meet the required of 2.6 million people living downstream Kotri and Arabian Sea but after passing 22 years, Punjab is not willing to release the already agreed limited water to save Indus delta. As a result one third of Sindh has already been turned into desert and now Punjab wants to turn the rest of Sindh into desert.
Three Assemblies out of four have already passed about 10 resolutions against construction of controversial Kalabagh dam in Punjab. Now efforts to bring forcible consensus would be disaster.
He is posing himself well wisher of Sindh but in fact, he is person who is opposing to release mandatory water downstream Kotri to save Indus delta – the sixth largest in the world. He is painting one sided picture.
If extra water is available, why it is not being released downstream Kotri where 2.6 million people are living and dying due to thirst and hunger. After all they are Pakistan Sindhis, Muslims, human beings.
Khursheed Anwer is worried about the need of the people Punjab but why at the cost of people of Sindh?Recommend
Whatever else they may lack, the clique presently ruling Pakistan definitely possesses an acute sense of history – of how each passing day. nay each passing moment imprints the sands of time with the marks of its singular non – achievements. Even so I predict that when the history of the present era comes to be written by professional and qualified historians it is bound to be labelled as the “Age of the Twits” because of the collective folly of not building the KB dam on the instigation of petty minded and myopic politicos from the NWFP. south Punjab and Sindh because in this day and age with the mind shattering calculations that superfast computers can make it would a relatively simple and easy matter to do some (computer) modelling on making a dam at Kalabagh and its ramifications for irrigation and power generation and of course flooding. And be sure that such calculations are bound to be flawless, impeccable and therefore unerringly accurate and correct. But the problem is, as always, how do you teach morons that to look for the rising sun they need look towards the east and not the north , south or west.
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Please access http://www.thewateraccord.com to see who is lying. There was no agreement in the Accord on 10 maf to be flown below Kotri. The agreement was on conducting a fresh study which was carried out later and which determined about half this amount as being sufficient to stop sea incursion. Mr Sial exposes his total ignorance by blaming Punjab for not releasing 10 maf. He does not even know that it is IRSA which controls river water distribution, and Sindh has a higher representation in IRSA, so how can Punjab decide how much water to release below Kotri. He also does not know that whatever water is to be released is to be distributed over the twelve months and that can be done only by regulating the flow through dams. The requisite amount has to be stored in many dams to release the requires monthly dose for year round protection of the delta. Only building more dam will help the delta.
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Building dams and river water management have two aspects,the technical and the social. The assembly members cannot possibly understand the technical complexities. Their role can only be to ensure the proper rehabilitation of the displaced people and prompt payment of due compensation to the land owners. Do they realize that Pakistan is storing only 9% of the annual river flows when India is storing 40%. The quantum of storage determines the availability of surface water per person per year. Because of increase in population and the low percentage of storage, the availability had dropped from 5000 to 1200 cubic meters, barely above the water scarce level of 1000. Do the assembly member have any idea what water scarcity will do to the country and its people. If dead storage is not replaced with live storage, regulation of river flows will not be possible. The country will alternate between floods and drought. There will be no transfer from wet to dry period, uniform supplies all around the year will not be available for agriculture and for community services. Do the know that 80% of our river flows is in less than three months and only 20% in the remaining nine months. But demand for canal water is less in the wet Kharif period and more in the dry Rabi period. If the surplus (80-40) during Kharif is not stored the higher demand (60-20) during the
Rabi period cannot be met, the wheat crop will suffer. Do they know what is contingency reserve? We have only 30 days of reserve supplies in case there is any blockage of our rivers due to natural calamity or man made reasons. If we don’t increase our contingency reserve we will be at the mercy of India’s designs on our rivers. Mr Sial should ask the assembly members if they understand all these things.
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Here they go again! India, India, India. I agree we in India don’t see eye to eye with Pakistan on a wide variety of subjects but to raise the India bogey all the time is silly.
Watching programs on Pakistani channels especially on youtube clearly show the amount of distrust that exists between your own Punjab, Sind and the other states. You don’t need an antagonistic India to cause water problems in Pakistan, it is being done quite well by the Pakistanis themselves.
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Could Mr Sial tell us why the Water Apportionment Accord was signed by all the four provinces. Was it just to increase Sindh’s share in all future dam by reducing Punjab’s share. Or was it just to decide on the amount of water to be sent to the delta. Let me inform him that the sole purpose of the Accord was to develop consensus on Kalabagh dam. Otherwise why would Punjab have agreed to replacing Wapda with the federal body IRSA. Why would Punjab have agreed to reducing its own share in all future dams to increase Sindh’s share. Increase for Sindh from 34% to 37% by reducing Punjab’s share from 40% to 37%. Remember Punjab has 70% of the total crop area of the country compared to only 20% for Sindh. Why on earth would Punjab have agreed to engineers from the Sindh irrigation department to be posted at major head works of Punjab to monitor the flow in Punjab’s canals. Can Mr Sial tell us why Punjab would make all these concessions to Sindh if Punjab was not to get agreement on Kalabagh dam in return. Did not all the provinces agree in the Accord to the construction of more dams on all the rivers including on the Indus. Also can any one tell me why the Accord would allocate 37% share to Punjab and not provide the means to utilize that share, which it can do only through the left bank canal at Kalabagh dam. Also why would the Accord allocate 14% share to KPK which it can utilize only through the right bank canal at Kalabagh dam. It should be clear even to a deaf dumb person that the sole purpose of the Accord was to develop consensus on Kalabagh dam, the only dam that was ready to build at that time. The confusion has arisen because the Sindh delegation had requested that Kalabagh dam not be mentioned by name. Later on Sindh went back on a written agreement. The Water Apportionment Accord even today is the best was forward if Sindh can get over its Punjab phobia.
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The situation is not as benign as you make it sound. India has already admitted it blocked flow to Pakistan while filling Baglihar dam. This could well happen again. Kishenganga dam will divert water from Neelum river to Jhelum, although the water will reach Pakistan via Wullar barrage but the whole of the Neelum Valley will dry up. This will also impinge adversely on our Neelum Jhelum power project. International experts are all agreed that India has developed enough storage to be able to manipulate river flows. Even a two week stoppage would ruin a whole crop. I agree we have our own problems which is the main topic of my discourse, but as the lower riparian we have to keep looking over our shoulders. Surely you cannot object to us wanting to increase our contingency reserve which is very low at 30 days, compared to India’s 200 plus days.
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Khursheed Anwer should read the Accord again. It was clearly mentioned that limited quantity of water was to be released downstream Kotri in Sindh mandatory and further study was to be conducted to fix quantity of exact water to be released more or less 10 MAF, by notorious WAPDA – a federal Govt organization (Pro Punjab) but shamelessly is not conducting survey deliberately after signing the accord 22 years ago and wanted to see Sindh and Indus delta to be ruined completely.
It is general practice through out world limited water is released regularly to push the sea water back, why not in Pakistan? where sea has inundated 2.6 acres of land in Sindh.
Will Khursheed Anwer tell us how many letters in newspapers, he has written pressing notorious WAPDA to conduct the study. He is silent because he wanted to see Sindh completely ruined.
The socalled well-wishers of Sindh Khursheed Anwer, claims that if KBD is built, Sindh would get more water. He is giving impression that Punjab would not get additional water at all that is wrong.
Due to intransigence of Punjab, one third of Sindh (from Kotri to Arabian Sea) has been turned into desert and now he wants to see second part, out of three of Sindh to be converted into desert.
Three Provincial Assemblies, out of four have already passed 10 resolutions against KBD, still he wants to see KBD in built in Punjab. Forcible consensus would weaken Pakistan definitely. Therefore, he is really enemy of Pakistan and not well wisher. The question is who is behind him? Notorious WAPDA, Punjabi chauvinists or any foreign country (enemy of Pakistan), this must be investigated impartially.
If dams do not consume water, why Pakistan is opposing dams in India? Dams are also hindering the smooth flow of water.Recommend
Mr.Sial will you please share your VAST knowledge regarding last year devastating flood in Sindh.
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@Mohammad Khan Sial:
please share your VAST knowledge regarding devastating flood in Sindh.
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I am a farmer from Southern Sind. The vast majority of educated people fro District Badin and Thatta are for the Kalabagh dam. All the big farm owners in upper Sind steal our water and we are suppose to blame Punjab for that. We need the Kalabagh dam as soon as possible. Otherwise due to the lack of intelligence of some Sindhis we all will suffer. The elected representatives in this country are too busy looting this country at the moment. We need to change them before anything positive happens in this country. Inshallah one day we will see this great dam being built.
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“By the time it is ready to store water, the Mangla and Tarbela dams will have lost their capacity to store water, which will be equal to the capacity of the Kalabahgh Dam…”
Khursheed Anwar Sahab:
Please read your OWN words VERY carefully.
You are admitting that Tarbella and Mangla are a failure; but instead of learing from the experience you are advocating building even larger dam?
Is there any logic? Fighting fire with fire you may say!
READ AND RE READ YOUR OWN WORDS; VERY CAREFULLY!
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