South Asian stability: ‘Fair water distribution a must’

Conference under way on regional security.

ISLAMABAD: Equitable water distribution and a just resolution of the Kashmir dispute are vital for durable security in the region.

They were speaking at a two-day ‘National Conference on South Asian Security’ organised by Strategic Vision Institute (SVI), which opened on Monday.

They said the political and security architecture in the region continues to be complex, instable and indeterminate because of water and Kashmir disputes.

Former foreign secretary Shamshad Ahmad said India’s construction of water dams was undermining the prospects of normalisation of Pak-India relations. “However, we do not have moral or legal ground to go against the dams being built by India as whatever water comes in Pakistan is wasted in the sea,” Ahmad said during his keynote address.

Former chief minister Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Shams-ul-Mulk and chairman of Wapda said water shortages present the greatest future threat to the viability of Pakistan as a state and a society.

Mulk said China built 22,000 medium and large dams while India built 4,500 dams while Pakistan failed to develop consensus over Kalabagh and Diamer-Bhasha dams.

“Rs192 billion is the price people of Pakistan are paying every year by not creating dams,” he said. Mulk said that both the dams would have produced 9,000 megawatts of electricity and people would have electricity at Rs1.54 paise per unit instead of the current Rs18 per unit.

Senior retired military officials also spoke at the event.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 9^th, 2014.