The Supreme Court on Monday scheduled the hearing of the Kalabagh dam case for June 9. The hearing of the case will be conducted in the apex court’s Karachi registry.
“Unfortunately Pakistan has suffered due to provincial strife and local politics and we have not built Kalabagh Dam due to this. Kalabagh Dam would be quicker to build and has already been approved by international [lenders]…Pakistan must build at least 20 dams to address water shortages for agriculture and drinking,”
Barrister Zafarullah's statement reveals an intriguing tale to tell in terms of politics.
Among all the situation experts consider Kala Bagh Dam and other dams like this blessing in disguise because Kala Bag Dam is such a huge project which can serve the purpose and helpful in sorting out the issues as a shortage of water and electricity. Pakistan is estimated to be declared a water-scarce nation by 2025 unless new capacity addition is achieved.
Unluckily, KBD has become nightmare just because of the controversies and negative propaganda by the injudicious leading heads of major parties in three of the provinces as KPK, Baluchistan and Sindh, only Punjab in favour of KBD.
The opposition leader Syed Khursheed Ahmad Shah has declared KBD a potential threat to small provinces. Pervez Khatak Chief Minister KPK said KBD is against the interest of KP. Awami National Party is also opposed to the construction of KBD.
According to IMF, to fulfil the need of water in Pakistan, there must be a construction of Dams like Terbala and Mangla Dams after every 10 years. The experts say that one solution is to construct the controversial, condemned, criticized and politicized Kalabagh dam.KBD is there to serve this purpose at large.
Pakistan is facing acute water shortage over the years. Everyone is crying about the shortage of water. Our land is barren now by the scarcity of water. People of this land are dying with the thirst, not by hunger. Food basket Southern Punjab is desperately affected by the non-construction of KBD.
Elections of 2018 are going held and it is in dire need of a time to have demand with the contesting parties to have top priority to construct Kala Bagh Dam for the safety of coming generation in Pakitan. Now Pakistanis are more aware of their rights, they know very well which things are best in their favour. If we can make an Atom bomb so why we can’t construct KBD, which in favour of every Pakistani.
Dams, dams and more dams – of all sizes and kinds need to be built on a war footing because failing to do so would be disastrous for Pakistan. It ’s a time to raise voice against this issue otherwise our future generation would be totally dependent for the single drop of water over the Indian Masters who are building dams after dams to reserve water and our politician here is biased fighting for the trivial matters.
It’s time to shut up call and discard every notion that goes against the construction of KBD.No delay would be tolerated in this regard because it’s a high time now! Pakistani people have already paid a high price,80 % Pakistani are deprived of filtered water. Every third person is suffering from Hepatitis C which is caused by dirty water. There is no irrigation system. Our crops are destroying because of the lack of water. Increasing waterlogging and salinity is resulting in uncultivated and infertile the land.
There is no doubt water is the most valuable commodity because we are the agricultural nation. Politicians should leave their petty differences now and should come up the same page to resolve the matter, may it’s not become too late.
''Among the entire situation, KBD is the most suitable project for the national economy as it would not only produce cheap and sufficient electricity but would also avert human tragedies’’. Agreed by the participants of a water conference to urge the international community to persuade India for resolving disputes under the Indus Water Treaty and refraining from using water as a propaganda tool against Pakistan.
The proposed hydroelectric dam (Kalabagh Dam) would be constructed on the Indus River at Kalabagh in Mianwali district. Intensely debated and deemed a necessity by many, the dam, if built, would also have a 3,600-megawatt electricity generation capacity.
As the water crisis deepens amid growing calls for some urgent measures, the advisory committee of the Indus River System Authority (Irsa) has recommended that the country should build at least two mega dams to cope with the shortage that poses a serious threat to food and other crops.
Unlike Pakistan, India is constructing dams at every possible site, they cautioned. This has left Pakistan decades behind and the future didn’t look promising either, they said. The existing dams are silting up, which means that the country’s capacity to store water is waning. Therefore, building Kalabagh and other new dams are “desperately needed”.
The author is currently pursuing Mphil in English Literature from Ripah University Faisalabad.
