There is some talk of building water reservoirs including Kalabagh Dam (KBD), since ADB has refused to fund Bhasha Dam, the only dam that would be acceptable to the World Bank. The alternative now would be to build KBD for which feasibility funds were also provided by the World Bank.
Work on KBD could be started and even tenders had been floated for the dam under PM Muhammad Khan Junejo who suddenly decided to stop the construction of the dam for no explainable reason at all and the people kept silent over the issue. Now, where no other water reservoir is being funded, we should work on KBD. What is required is a firm determination of the government to convince the recalcitrant provincial governments.
Only action is required to move ahead but the government is embroiled in false disputes on the issue of KBD which is treated as a dead issue and it needs to be revised by the rulers in national interest as the coming generation would not accept any excuse or forget the issue and would blame the government of the day for inaction and apathy in dealing with a project of national importance such as KBD.
DR. MUHAMMAD YAQOOB BHATTI,
Lahore, November 3.