Building new dams can resolve energy crisis

ISLAMABAD - Construction of dams can resolve energy crisis besides that may prevent the economy of Pakistan from the irreversible damages to corps and precious lands by the continuous floods every year, said Mahfooz Elahi president ICCI on Wednesday. While talking he said that government could benefit from the technical expertise of the Norwegian and Chinese companies in the field of dam construction and producing hydro electricity. He said that in various international seminars on dam construction and hydro electricity, the businessmen were invited who attended these seminars with the business prospective. However the government needs to participate in such seminars to understand that how dams can be constructed to stop floods and to produce the electricity. To a question he said that energy crisis has converged the interests of businessmen and the government, in due course a joint strategy need to devise to overcome the prevailing crisis that has been destroying the every sector of economy of Pakistan, he added. Earlier, the president has said that the floods have not only caused damage to human life, but also has been destroying precious agriculture land, infrastructure and wildlife habitat. Another deluge has hit a number of southern districts of Sindh while the memories of devastating floods of 2010 are still fresh. The need of the hour is to have a pertinent flood forecasting and management strategy of water resources for minimising the ravaging effects of the floods. Government should accelerate its efforts for setting up new water reservoirs and dams on emergent basis, he said. ICCI President has expressed deep grief and sorrow over the lost of human lives caused by the torrential rains and devastating floods. He said that the outreach of the disaster management system needs to be further spread and made more effective as its current performance was much below the desired level. There should be a coordinating cell in every affected locality to make relief efforts well integrated and target oriented, he added. He said that it was high time for Government to invest in dams and construct large water reservoirs to save water being wasted. He said that the agricultural and economic future of Pakistan would be difficult unless we build more dams. He was reacting to the reports that many dams and other water control infrastructure damaged by last years floods have not yet been repaired. Now country has to face another calamity in the form of worst rains, Governments should prioritize support for early recovery programmes that help flood victims, he added. ICCI President said that Pakistan constantly received flooding every year but damage could be minimised if Government build dams and water reservoirs, which are the best instruments of flood control.