Dr Samar Mubarakmand has said that the fate of the country would have been quite different today if Kalabagh dam had been built. There is a long list of people responsible for the fate of the country being what it is today. Foremost of course is the leader who said, through the back of her head, that Sindh will become a desert if Kalabagh dam is built. The truth is that nothing can now save Sindh from becoming a desert. The PPP brigade of course argued that Punjab will take too much water from the dam because it is in Punjab hence the flow in the Indus will deplete therefore Sindh will become a desert.
In no other country would this bit of nonsense have been allowed to stand in the way of the development of the whole country. The gravity of the situation would have alerted the newspapers to carry out investigative reporting to educate public opinion, columnists with any sense of responsibility would have tried to remove the cobwebs of ignorance. River water management is no rocket science; you store water when there is more water in the rivers and use it when there is less. In our case a flow of 88 percent in the three floods months with only 12 percent in the remaining nine months. If there is any way other than storage to average out the flow please let me know.
Unfortunately in Pakistan neither the newspapers bothered to do their national duty nor the learned columnists showed any sense of responsibility. Only a few people were banging their heads against a brick wall raising the alarm for any who will listen, that there is no real alternate to Kalabagh dam. Another 15 years without Bhasha dam and many more people will come to know this but by then it will be too late.
ENGR KHURSHID ANWER,
Lahore, July 19.