Large dams are federally funded national assets
LAHORE: The chairman of Wapda has suggested that the operation of Kalabagh Dam should be the responsibility of the Sindh government. This, however, will set a wrong precedent. The Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa government is already laying claims to the Tarbela Dam. Are we admitting that the federal bodies Wapda and the Indus River System Authority (IRSA) are not able to carry out their duties? This is certainly not the case. Instead of acceding to grievances of the provinces, which may or may not be justified, our effort should be to ensure complete transparency in the working of the federal bodies to gain the confidence of all stakeholders.
In any case, Sindh already has three votes in IRSA against one vote for Punjab; in other words, it has the Sindh delegate, the federal delegate (who is also from Sindh) and the Balochistan delegate, who openly votes along with the Sindh delegate because Sindh controls the river water supply to Balochistan.
Large dams are federally funded national assets and are to be used for the benefit of all the stakeholders and not to be put under the control of any one province.
Engr Khurshid Anwer
Published in The Express Tribune, July 22nd, 2016.
Like Opinion & Editorial on Facebook, follow @ETOpEd on Twitter to receive all updates on all our daily pieces.
