Diamer-Bhasha dam

The PM overstated the dam’s approval timeline by a few decades and oversold its overall significance

Prime Minister Imran Khan promised to build the “biggest dam in Pakistan’s history” as he spoke in Chilas at a public address related to the Diamer-Bhasha Dam project. He also went on a site visit with Army Chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa and Water Resources Minister Faisal Vawda. Once completed, the dam would generate around 4,500MW of hydel power and have a storage capacity of about eight million acre-feet. Around 16,000 jobs will also be created for its construction. These numbers will make it one of the country’s largest functioning dams, though not quite at the level of Tarbela. For what its worth, it will be Pakistan’s highest dam, and could challenge Tarbela in terms of power generation.

The PM also rightly noted how beneficial the dam would be for the local and national economy, including as a potential tourism engine down the line. Unfortunately, the rest of the PM’s speech was littered with unnecessary exaggeration. He drew parallels to China and the vast number of dams it has, ignoring the fact that the country has more rivers and a land area about 12 times that of Pakistan. Yes, “massive mistakes” were made in the past, but they have less to do with the raw number of dams and more with construction delays and timely replacement of the ones that were planned or built. The PM also overstated the dam’s approval timeline by a few decades and oversold its overall significance. Diamer Bhasha dam will primarily be a hydel facility with a massive reservoir. In terms of agriculture, while important, it will not substitute for other water projects because its location makes the reservoir unsuitable for a broader canal network.

The PM did say that the government will build more dams on rivers, noting how they will eventually help reduce the fuel bill for power plants. However, he did not mention Kalabagh Dam, which has benefits across the board but would probably cost a few PTI leaders seats in K-P. The ANP of ‘Purana Pakistan’ had vehemently opposed the dam for the same reason — political expediency. Will the PTI be different?

Published in The Express Tribune, July 17^th, 2020.

Like Opinion & Editorial on Facebook, follow @ETOpEd on Twitter to receive all updates on all our daily pieces.