There is an abysmal level of ignorance about dams, and in particular, about the Kalabagh Dam.
LAHORE: Pakistan Peoples Party leader Shehla Raza said on TV recently, “We stopped Musharraf from building the Kalabagh Dam”. I wish the anchorperson had asked the learned lady the reason for the opposition. Apart from politicisation of the issue, there is an abysmal level of ignorance about dams, and in particular, about the Kalabagh Dam.
When the Bhasha Dam was in the news, a member of the Sindh Assembly, Humaira Alvani, kept appealing to the government not to build it since Sindh was already suffering from a severe water shortage. Obviously she thought, like many others, that the dam would deplete the flow in the Indus. She was totally ignorant of the fact that the dam would store seven million acre feet of additional water for the use of the provinces. There is also ignorance of the fact that with the loss of the eastern rivers, the whole country has to survive on the remaining three rivers, of which the Indus is the only river with surplus flow.
Then there are those who think that the Tarbela Dam was built only for Sindh, and Punjab has no share in the water stored in it; that it is Sindh’s water that Punjab is stealing through the Chashma-Jhelum and Taunsa-Panjnad link canals. It is generally feared that Punjab will deprive Sindh of its due share and take more water from the Kalabagh Dam because it is located in Punjab. I would like to ask those who think along these lines: is Azad Jammu and Kashmir taking more water from the Mangla Dam because it is located there? Is Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa taking more power from the Tarbela Dam because it is located in that province?
There is also ignorance that after the Water Accord of 1991, it is IRSA and not Punjab, which is entrusted with distribution of river waters, with Sindh having three votes in IRSA to one vote from Punjab. There is also the misunderstanding that with Punjab having agreed to a reduction in its share, there will be an increase in Sindh’s share in all future dams that are built.
It is through sheer ignorance of this kind that incalculable harm has been caused not only to Sindh itself but to the whole country.
Engr Khurshid Anwer
Published in The Express Tribune, April 12th, 2013.
