Hon Sir,
It is easy to blame your ills on other countries and/or their agents. Many of my compatriots are guilty of this error, probably because it is always difficult to accept that often fault lies with oneself and not with the others.
Since I am one of the oldest members (age wise) of the PDF forum and Pakistan being close to my heart, keenly follow all development concerning the security & well-being of my country. Permit me to disagree with your assertion.
I have been hearing about Kalabagh Dam from the late ‘60s. It was said that Tarbela would be silted up in next 70 years but Kalabagh dam, further downstream will be a perpetual dam
Undoubtedly Pakistan suffers from the scarcity of water especially for sowing the ‘Rabi’ crops in late January/early February. Its feasibility had been completed and the World Bank was ready to finance the project. Kalabagh Dam would have been able to store about 6-million acre-feet of water and generate 3,600 MW electricity. It was during the Zia-ul Haq time when this issue was politicized and became controversial will all of the three smaller provinces opposing. The main opponents were the KPK majority Awami National Part and the Sind Nationalists as well the People Party on behalf of Sind.
Do you think that Abdul Wali Khan and GM Syed were stooges of Iran or of India???
The main reason for this opposition was and remains to this day, is the malady of “Provincialism”. Smaller provinces don’t want Kalabagh Dam to be built because the main beneficiary will be Punjab. An article by Dr. Moonis Ahmer published Daily Times of April 14, 2018, clearly explains the situation.
For your convenience, it is copied below. However, should your wish to persist with your sectarian & xenophobic views; you are fully entitled to do so.
Conflict dynamics of Kalabagh Dam
Due to the politicization of the issue, the Kalabagh Dam has been put in cold storage and no serious effort has been made to remove the reservations of smaller provinces about its construction
Dr Moonis Ahmar
JUNE 15, 2018
Briefing the Senate Standing Committee (SSC) on water resources on June 6, Chairman of Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA) Muzammil Hussain offered to give control of the proposed Kalabagh dam to the province of Sindh in order to dispel reservations about the possible depletion of water after the dam’s construction.
Since 1984, when the Kalabagh dam controversy was given an ethnic and provincial colour till today, Pakistan’s water predicament has worsened. It was the Martial Law regime of General Ziaul Haq which first politicised the construction of Kalabagh Dam. According to a recently released International Monetary Fund (IMF) report, Pakistan is the third most water deficient country in the world. The WADPA Chairman rightly said that Pakistan has a water storage capacity of only 30 days, whereas India has water reserves which can meet its requirements for 170 days. Since the completion of Tarbela dam in 1974, no mega dam has been constructed in Pakistan, whereas the population of the country has tripled in the last 44 years.
The feasibility of the Kalabagh dam is not the issue, because the paper work and other important details about water storage and power generation project over river Indus at Kalabagh were prepared a long time ago. Unfortunately, the conflict dynamics of Kalabagh dam primarily rest on lack of consensus among provinces. The provincial assemblies of three out of the four provinces have passed resolutions against the construction of the Kalabagh dam for a variety of reasons. For instance, the assembly of the North Western Frontier Province (now Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) rejected Kalabagh dam because it feared that Nowshera would be submerged under water if the dam was constructed. On the other hand, the provincial assembly of Sindh resolved that because of the construction of Kalabagh dam, Sindh as the lower riparian province will be dry because of the non-availability of water. Only Punjab favours the construction of Kalabagh dam, as it expects the easing of electricity shortages and the availability of more water for agriculture. With such strong reservations, it has been rather impossible for any government since 1984 to proceed with the construction of Kalabagh dam as such a step is considered dangerous for the unity and integrity of Pakistan.
Kalabagh dam is our best chance at stopping the wastage of billions of gallons of water during the monsoon season. It will also produce around 4,500 megawatts of cheap electricity
Subscribing to the reservations against the construction of Kalabagh dam without consensus, the WADPA Chairman in his briefing before the SSC on water resources said, “Kalabagh Dam should be built with consensus of all political parties. Reservations of Sindh are justified and the Kalabagh dam should be handed over to the province if it is built.”
On June 9, while taking a suo motu notice of water shortages and the Kalabagh dam issue in the Supreme Court’s Karachi registry, the Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) made it clear that the purpose of the bench is to suggest measures for mitigating the water crisis in Pakistan. He will not take a position on the construction of the dam, but wants more water reservoirs to be built in the country at the earliest. According to the Pakistan Council of Research in water resources, Pakistan reached the water stress line in 1990 and crossed the water scarcity line in 2005 whereas, it has been warned that Pakistan will reach ‘absolute scarcity’ levels by 2025. The CJP also expressed alarm over the dangerous water crisis in Quetta and warned that if adequate measures were not taken, Quetta will be soon be completely dry.
Due to the politicisation of the issue; the Kalabagh Dam has been put in cold storage and no serious effort has been made to remove the reservations of smaller provinces about its construction. In the summer of 1998 following the nuclear tests, the then government of PML-N brought up the Kalabagh issue out of the blue, and called for its construction. This led to the formation of the Pakistan Oppressed Movement Nations (PONAM), which vehemently opposed it.
Three major realities shape the conflict dynamics of Kalabagh dam. First, Pakistan has not built any mega dam since 1974, which threatens our already depleted water resources. With India proceeding with its violations of the Indus Water Treaty by constructing dams over Jhelum and Chenab; and Afghanistan constructing a dam over river Kabul, Pakistan’s water predicament is certainly alarming.
Taking this into account, Kalabagh dam is the most appropriate option to deal with the wastage of millions of acres of water during the monsoon season. It will also produce around 4,500 megawatts of cheap electricity. During the 1960s, when the idea to build a dam on river Indus in the Kalabagh area was conceived, the cost was around $2 billion but now its cost has risen to 12 billion. The Diamar-Basha dam is another option, but cannot match the feasibility of the Kalabagh project. Secondly, the Kalabagh fiasco is a classic case of intra-state water conflict. It has exposed internal contradictions of Pakistan and undermines the country’s national harmony.
One should also try to understand the reality that as long as there are vested interest groups who use ethnicity and so-called nationalistic feelings to further their provincial political goals, there will be no consensus about the Kalabagh Dam. Pervez Musharraf himself has said that he could make no headway in the dam’s construction because of threats of serious backlash from Sindhi nationalists.
Lack of political will and vision, corruption and incompetence are the four major reasons which block progress and development in this country, and it is these very issues which have stopped the Kalabagh project in its tracks. Unless these four issues are addressed, the state of this country will not improve.
The writer is Meritorious Professor of International Relations at the University of Karachi. E. Mail: amoonis@hotmail.com
Published in Daily Times, June 15th 2018.
https://dailytimes.com.pk/253725/conflict-dynamics-of-kalabagh-dam/
aap ki tarah hum bhi tu chacha G mujhe kun sa talash karna hai all in head acha time tha woh bhi.Just after nuclear test woh ugly feud start ho giya tha by Dr samar Mubarakmand bilkul idea nahi ja raha where u pointing
