The dam debate

Business Recorder op-ed writer Syed Bakhtiar Kazmi has a very different perspective on the ongoing dam debate. His is a highly informed comment. There cannot be two opinions about the criticality of water in an agrarian economy such as ours. But the issue is lack of prudence and foresight on the part of our successive governments. Why are we always reluctant to heap praise on those who had conceived the idea of building Mangla and Tarbela? I would like a profound answer to this question from Mr Kazmi who had argued, among other things, that
"How can building a dam ultimately necessary for the survival of a nation become so controversial that politicians across the board are fraught to even whisper its name for fear of fatal consequences, is a perfect case study for why democracy is a failure. And if that was not enough, an attempt to educate and galvanize the populace into building another dam on a self help basis is endlessly ridiculed by the intelligentsia. The experts insist that dams cannot be built through charity; maybe they can't, but we have failed hopelessly in building them by any other means as well. Ridiculously, after spending billions over the past few years, our government could only acquire land to build the dam; seriously were we buying land from India?!"