Water is life but, right now, it is death and disaster for us. When it does not rain, we cry for it and when it rains, we cry with it. The problem lies in our planning, or rather the lack of it. If we had planned dams for this country, we would have saved innumerable precious lives and a lot of valuable property, including the most valuable of all that belonged to the poor people. In the bargain, we would have had enough water for irrigation till the harvesting season and may be even enough energy for running our industries. We wouldnt have to resort to loadshedding. Too bad, even now our parliamentarians are just too busy getting big contracts, making money. And the rulers that preside over them are busy making a mockery of our institutions. Our generals have finally stopped ruling us but they are now busy building farms houses. Is there anyone in the whole establishment who could be bothered a bit to work sincerely for the uplift of this country? Believe me, the water we have can be worth the oil Arabs have if we could only manage it well and utilize this scare resource to create wealth instead of death and disaster that it brings every rainy season. -DR ABID RAUF ORAKZAI, Islamabad, July 31