The minister for power and water has said that there will be no comprise on construction of Bhasha dam. But the very design of the dam is a political comprise. Height of the dam as per its original design was a little over 600 feet, which gave it a storage capacity less than that of Kalabagh dam. To give it superiority over Kalabagh dam the height was revised to a height little over 900 feet. The material for construction and the mode of construction were also tampered with to reduce the excessive time it would have taken to build such a huge dam, even the cost of construction was miraculously shown to be about the same as for Kalabagh dam.
Many experts believe that a dam of this height in an active seismic zone and below zero temperatures will be an accident waiting to happen.
If at all Bhasha dam is to be built instead of the far superior Kalabagh dam, it should be built to its original design and not to the politically motivated design.
In announcing Bhasha dam Gen Musharraf had spelled at great length the salient points of Kalabagh dam’s superiority over Bhasha dam, and said that he was going for Bhasha dam out of political expediency.
ENGR. KHURSHID ANWER,
Lahore, January 3.