The Diamer-Bhasha dam decision

Pakistan has not built any significant water reservoir since the Mangla and Tarbela dams were built in the 1960s, a mistake long known and imperfectly addressed by successive governments. That Pakistan is a water-poor state is ever more obvious as global warming advances and the climate changes. It has for years been in the top 10 water-poor nations and a water crisis is widely and credibly predicted for 2025. Thus it is with a sense of relief that it is reported that the construction of the Diamer-Bhasha dam is finally to go ahead. On Monday March 19^th the Central Development Working Party cleared the project for the final approval of the Executive Committee of National Economic Council, according to the planning and development ministry. Also approved was the Mohmand dam hydropower project. The former is a water storage dam, the latter a power generator. With the World Bank and the IMF unwilling to fund the project, likewise China, funding is going to come from what are being described as ‘local resources’.

Large dams are expensive and slow to build — in this instance around Rs928 billion and probably more than that when cost overruns are factored in — and have to survive successive governments and the vagaries of the national economy. In the event of a power-generation option being added to the Diamer Basha Dam the costs rise to Rs1.4 trillion.

There has been a groundbreaking ceremony almost every year for the last 17 years but lack of finance and assorted difficulties with compensation to the local population (mainly resolved now) and riparian populations downstream (mostly unresolved to date) have impeded construction. Both of these projects are crucial to the future of Pakistan in the very widest sense. Its importance is well known to India that has done its best to frustrate the development, and the international lenders are concerned about the implications of building on disputed territory but built they must be. It is now essential to drive forward with all speed, and if that means a few toes get trodden on and feathers ruffled in the process then so be it. Power and water have primacy.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 21^st, 2018.

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