‘Diamer-Bhasha dam to serve as lifeline for future’

Businessmen lament growing water scarcity in Pakistan

LAHORE:

Businessmen have welcomed the announcement of a new timeline for the construction of the Diamer-Bhasha dam and stated that the mega project would serve as lifeline for the future of the country, improve the energy mix, curtail huge oil import bill and bring down the cost of doing business.

In a statement on Monday, Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) President Mian Nauman Kabir expressed concern that Pakistan was ranked among those countries where water scarcity was getting severe.

He added that Pakistan was facing water shortfall despite being enriched with all resources.

“Pakistan is in a dire need of a different energy mix aimed at curtailing the lofty oil import bill and bringing down the cost of doing business as these issues are hampering the economic growth,” he said.

The LCCI president underlined that the water storage capacity of the country had dropped by a massive proportion and stated that it was being witnessed partly due to aversion of people towards water and power projects.

Pakistan is an agrarian country and cannot afford water shortage at any cost, he added. The country is dependent on two big dams only ie Tarbela and Mangla.

Kabir expressed concern over drop in water levels in the two dams and pointed out that they had fallen significantly. He forecasted the issue to alleviate with time.

According to him, lack of storage reservoirs and wastage of water were main reasons behind the daunting water shortage in the country.

“Pakistan can hardly escape from becoming a desert unless drastic measures are not taken instantly,” he said. “Sufficient availability of water is a must for sustainable development but in Pakistan, the per capita availability of the resource is decreasing because we do not have enough reservoirs for storage of water”.

The LCCI president said that with every passing year, Pakistan was getting inching closer to mass starvation because of a drastic cut in water availability. Citing figures, he added that water availability dropped from 5,000 cubic meters per capita in 1950s to around 1,000 cubic meters at present.

He stressed that these facts were calling for establishment of water reservoirs all over the country which would enhance the capacity of water storage. The same reservoirs will also prove to be useful in incident of floods.

“After every two to three years, we face nationwide emergency due to floods that adversely affect our economy and push us back many years,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 19^th, 2022.

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