A letter in a section of the English-language press by Mr. Aman Ulah Turk from Dubai has rebutted a letter of Begum Tehmina Daultana on Kalabagh dam. Mr. Turk's letter quotes the views of A.G.N. Abbasi ex-Chairman of Technical Committee Water Resources. He has forgotten to mention that Mr. Abbasi's note was a dissent note against the majority members of the Committee and hence has to be taken in that context. Now Mr. Turk suggests building of Bhasha dam, lining of canals and drip irrigation as alternatives for Kalabagh dam while stating that there is no spare water to be stored in river Indus. Firstly, how does he justify the storage of water in Bhasha dam if there is no water to be stored. His only fear is to store water in a location in Punjab otherwise he would not have suggested the storage at Bhasha. Why does he not comment on storage dams being built on Indus by the Indians if there is no water to be stored? His suggestion of lining canals and drip irrigation on a wide scale is counter productive as the seepage from canals is already recovered from ground water by the tube wells while the drip irrigation over 48 million acres of land would require colossal investment in equipment that could not be afforded by the farmers. It would also require power for running the system while the country is already afflicted with shortage of power resulting in loadshedding. -DR M. YAQOOB BHATTI, Lahore, via e-mail, May 9.