Is it so difficult to convince the people that the dam will not deplete the flow of the Indus but augment it.
LAHORE: Many letters and editorials have been very critical of the neglect being shown by the ruling party towards the Kalabagh Dam in view of its importance to the national economy. I am afraid the criticism is being directed at the wrong party. Punjab gave concession after concession to Sindh to bring it on board on this matter.
River water distribution was taken away from the controversial Wapda and entrusted to a new federal body Irsa, in which Sindh has three votes compared with one vote for Punjab. Punjab agreed to a reduction in its share in order to increase Sindh’s share in all future dams, with equal share for both despite Punjab having 70 per cent of the total crop area of the country and also bearing 80 per cent of the total agriculture load. Punjab has even allowed engineers from the Sindh irrigation department to be posted at major headworks of Punjab. They have not reported any misappropriation to date. What more can Punjab do?
It is the previous PPP leadership, which misled the people of Sindh by propagating that the province will become a desert if the Kalabagh Dam is built. Is it so difficult to convince the people that the dam will not deplete the flow of the Indus but augment it, that it is Irsa and not Punjab that will disburse water from the dam as it is doing from the Mangla and Tarbela dams, etc.? Against whom should be our anger be directed: certainly the PPP leadership, past and present; the print and electronic media (with a few notable exceptions); the columnists (they are free with advice on every subject under the sun but not on this vital subject which will make or break our country); and most of all, the intelligentsia, if they deserve to be called that.
Engr Khurshid Anwer
Published in The Express Tribune, November 9th, 2013.
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