I am glad the efforts of those promoting the Kalabagh dam for a long time bore some result and the issue at least got debated in the national and provincial assemblies. The irony is that the PPP, MQM, ANP have never come up with one good reason ever against the dam except that Nowshera would be inundated. The remotest possibility of this has been very well-addressed by a suitable lowering of the dam height. There is another totally unfounded objection by Sindh that the water in rivers is scarce so no dam should be madeat all. This self-negating objection need not even be answered if a province was not making it. Everybody can understand that this reason is exactly why we need this dam and many other besides. The political leaders opposing the dam must realize that only large reservoirs like dams have the capacity to get filled by the monsoons rains and then feed the cultivable lands. Once water is stored at Kalabagh, we would be able to ensure greater flow of water downstream the Sukkur Barrage to offset the sea water intrusion that is devouring thousands of acres in the affected coastal areas like Badin etc. The opponents of the dam particularly need to realise that because of lack of water quotient downstream of Sukkur, the underground water in Sindh is depleting every year with its salinity getting ever more pervasive with the passage of time. In the end, please also consider the fact that the (cheapest) hydro energy we would get from this dam that would effectively rid the nation of loadshedding. It is the shortest term project that we have to save billions of dollars we are wasting every year on import of expensive fossil fuels. -M. MOHAMMAD, Sargodha, June 20.