THE good news is that the tender documents for the Bhasha-Diamer Dam are ready, along with the feasibilities and designs. The Chairman WAPDA announced this on Monday at Lahore, and also that construction would start next year. This is welcome news, for the same lobby which has shot down the Kalabagh Dam project, had done its best to stop the Bhasha Dam project and had tried to present Bhasha as some sort of substitute for Kalabagh, even though both are needed. The current wave of loadshedding should prove to all of us that the 4500MW that will come on line with Bhasha are desperately needed, but even assuming no further growth in demand, will barely meet the gap that exists. The current food crisis should also highlight the importance of the live storage capacity of 6.4 million acre feet that it will bring. How much more will the Kalabagh project be welcome, as it enables new land to be brought under the plough This would enable Pakistan to meet the coming food crisis as a confident, surplus country, rather than one stricken by fear from crop to crop. The pity is that the Kalabagh project is ready down to the tender documents and all feasibility reports, and Bhasha should have been built after it. However, provided that the federal government, which forms part of all provincial governments of the country, takes the decision, work on Kalabagh can start at once. It should be clear to all that Pakistan must develop all its water resources, both Kalabagh and Bhasha-Diamer, and any other site that may have been identified. It cannot afford the hunger and darkness that vested interests would like to impose.