Politics on Kalabagh Dam

Everyone's talking about KalaBagh Dam and during the power outage it'll be in debates untill it is completed. Majority of the work which takes majority of the time on it has already completed like initial research and development work, selection of dam site, feasibility report even arrangement of funds and the project was almost on the verge of start.

But in the same instance, some political parties sabotage it, by claiming North West Frontier Province would be drowned, Sindh would be in drought, we'll bombard this dam, millions of life would be sacrificed for the cause etc, such were the slogans of political parties which were almost baseless.

As we know that dams are water reservior in which we save excessive waters from rains, glaciers and other resources, and which also enables us to generate electricity and it enables us to utilize this water during droughts. The height of the dam is generally used for the manufacture of potential energy and so that we can utilize water for agricultural and remaining is left to be drained into the sea. So one can't deny the importance of having dams in a country to prosper.

For the construction of dam, the importance of location is vitally important, the passage way of the river at an average height with ledge rock foundation is recommended. It is a normal thing that sediments with the flow of river water do affects the age of the dam. Tarbela dam of Pakistan is world biggest Earth Filled Dam and its constantly been filled with sediments.

As far as KaraBagh dam is concerned its being constructed 120 miles below Tarbela, if its constructed above Tarbela, it'll help improving life of Tarbela dam. Diamer Bhasha Dam is the only dam which is going to be constructed above the level of Tarbela dam...

Comparision between Kalabagh dam and Tarbela dam.

1- Expenditure on Kalabagh dam in 1985-86 estimated 5.5 Billion Dollars, whereas Diamer Bhasha dam costs 3.5 Billion dollar.
2- Kalabagh dam will generate 3400 MV of electricity whereas Bhasha dam will generate 3300 MV.
3- Because of the construction of Kalabagh Dam, 200,000 people approximate would be affected, whereas 1500 people in contruction of Diamer Bhasha dam.
4- As feasibility report of Kalabagh dam is completed so it'll take less time to be completed, else we've to construct both dams as they are necessary

Now coming to the demerits raised by the political parties for their dirty political motives.

Its eminent that some area of the land DO comes under water but no city of NWFP province comes under it. The close city to it is Nowshehra that is also safe from coming under water. For the province of Sindh, it is an added advantage as during the time of floods many of the agricultural fields in Sindh is affected secondly such water is than drained into the sea after having catestrophic affect, and than during the times of droughts, the sea water is drained underland because of the limitation of normal water. Such things can be limited with the construction of dams.

One objection is that when water is drained out from the dams, Sindh will get less water than its share just to keep the flow of Indus River, but can't we think that creating number of sub-rivers from the dam and the timing of draining out of water is under the control of Sindh, they can create 2 types of rivers, one which is 12 monthly operational and one is 4 months a year. There can be such dams too which are called Carry Over Dams, the purpose of which is that no new river is scaled from that dam and only electricity is generated. Even if new rivers are generated, so they can be limitized by water gates which is under the control of the committee and that committee have the right to operate it, and it should consist of members from all provinces specially from Sindh, which will enable to end Sindh's reservations on water distributions.

We've examples of completion such complicated projects in our history. During the Ayub Khan's regime, Late General Azam Khan was the Fed Minister and during that time, there were many migrants still living in slums in Karachi. General Azam Khan decided to construct 50,000 apartments in Landhi and Korangi areas, experts said that it'll take atleast 1 year for allocation of land, making of feasibility report and mapping, construction and tender work will take further 1 and the half years atleast. He requested them to further limitize the time period but it was no use. General Khan end the confrence and ordered experts the time period of 6 months to generate all basic municipal facilities to those areas, and he'll examine the place after 6 month, and if any non-serious attitude is seen, that expert will be sacked and he'll be behind bars. In record 6 months time the infrestructure was completed and later US President Dwight D. Eisenhower when came to Pakistan visited that area via helicopter. Can't we take motivation from that experience and start doing work on our own? Aren't we trust our own labours who constructed developed almost the whole of UAE? Can't we give confidence to our own experts living abroad to return to Pakistan and do their job?

I don't think this government would able to that.

Peace!