The problem of dwindling water resources in Pakistan is raised almost on daily bases in the print media but falls on deaf ears of our authorities. I don’t understand. Do they not read the newspapers? There was a time when a ruler woke up and reached for a newspaper and read all the information given (well almost all) about his country, but our leaders only hear what their special people tell them! The ‘court jesters’ they have collected around them who do not let the truth seep close to them.
The disregard to the growing need for Kalabagh dam has resulted in non construction of any mega dams in the past four decades to store water and generate cheap power from the God given resources of our rivers while India has built scores of dams on our Western rivers restricting the flow of water in our rivers. While Pakistan has not raised any timely objections to the illegal building of these dams which has resulted in care free dam building by India. Pakistan has been caught in a vice like situation by the abject failure of our politicians to achieve consensus on Kalabagh dam due to patently false reasons, given by vested parties who are on Indian payroll. The only two mega dams built in the seventies by F.M. Ayub Khan have so far been sustaining Pakistan but for how long?.
The writing on the wall is clear for all concerned but the will to act in time is lacking. The nation is being led up the garden path of nuclear and coal powered plants to generate costly power sans water and the hydel potential of 44000 MW power with storage of tremendous quantities of water is lost on planners. The recent heart breaking scenes of famine in Thar, resulting in untold misery of people and livestock did not move the stone hearted PPP who seem to be in deep stupor like CM of Sindh.
The nation is suffering while mega dams are either not built or postponed, scarcely realizing the dismal fate of the nation. We have reached a stage of ‘build or perish’ if the leaders do not arrive at wise decisions and build consensus on nation building projects like KBD, soon our tale would not be told in the history of the world.
DR. MUHAMMAD YAQOOB BHATTI,
Lahore, March 18.