Five years on: Mirani Dam victims await dues

Meeting being held in Lahore today to address their plight.

ISLAMABAD:

A large number of Mirani Dam’s flood-affected people still seem to be in limbo. Between protesting over the government’s apathy and dealing with the backlash of the devolution process under the 18th Amendment, they have been left uncompensated by the Centre even after a lapse of more than five years.

The Mirani Dam, one of the mega projects launched by the previous government in Balochistan, was built on the confluence of the Neheng and the Kech river known as Dasht River. It was inaugurated in 2008. The dam was ostensibly constructed to bolster the economy of the region by irrigating about 30,000 acres of agricultural land in the Dasht region.

However, instead of bringing prosperity and bolstering the economy of the region, it wrought unprecedented destruction in two union councils of Kech district. On June 27, 2008, backwater caused by the dam led to the submergence of union council Nasirabad and Nodiz rendering about 50,000 people homeless within 24 hours.

Agriculture was devastated by the flood. About 30,000 acres of agricultural land lay barren, while thousands of date palms and other fruited trees fell to the ground.

“We will continue to protest until the government compensates of our losses,” said Sharif Shamsbezi, who leads a portion of the affected population that still waits to be compensated. Shamsbezi went on to add that the Mirani Dam flood-affected people weren’t too optimistic about a meeting being held today (April 2) in Lahore to address their plight.

Provincial Minister for Industries Syed Ahsan Shah, officials from the Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda), the Planning Commission of Pakistan, former Senator Dr Abdul Malik and other high-ups will attend the meeting.

Dr Abdul Malik claimed that around 400,000 people had been displaced due to the Mirani flood, yet the government had only doled out compensation to a small portion of the stricken people. Furthermore, the former senator from Balochistan said the issue had become even more problematical after the passage of the 18th Amendment as well as the introduction of the National Finance Commission Award since the matter was now in the domain of the provincial minister.

Making a case for a fair survey to be conducted by Wapda, Malik recalled the numerous surveys of the damaged houses that had been carried out so far by different surveying teams. Ironically, statistics of each survey were different. Member infrastructure Ghulam Mohiuddin Marri told The Express Tribune that the federal government had deputed a person from the Planning Commission to take up the issue of compensation with the affected population and Wapda, adding that compensation had been given to those impacted by water levels up to 265feet.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 2^nd, 2012.