Construction of water reservoirs to avert the impending water crises does not need any consensus except the controversial Kalabagh Dam, which is being strongly resisted by the people of smaller federating units particularly Sindh and NWFP.
Senior irrigation expert on the condition of anonymity told Business Recorder here on Monday. He said that without going into technical and economic aspects of the KBD project which have already been tackled in the parliamentary and technical committees reports, he said, he failed to understand as to why Wapda and the government are insisting on the construction of such a controversial project which might endanger solidarity of the country.
He added that the parliamentary reports indicate that all the three chief ministers of smaller units have consented to construct Bhasha Dam instead of KBD except of the Punjab who was of the view that both the dams should be constructed simultaneously.
The expert said he was also unable to comprehend the logic of Wapda which had conceded that there was no provision of diversion of water or off take of canals from KBD.
President Pervez Musharraf is also on record saying no canals would off take from any dam than why the canal issue was being discussed or brought up into discussion by the Wapda and government executives making the issue more complicated.
He said both reports are now under study of irrigation experts after which alone they can offer their comments over the KBD project.
The expert, however, said that he or any sane person would not disagree with Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz observations that water reservoirs are imperative to stamp out poverty and usher in an era of prosperity and economic development in the country.
Meanwhile, Sindh is in the grip of protest demonstrations and rallies. All most every opposition party and nationalists group is out on streets to record their stance over KBD project. The nationalists are castigating roles of Pir Pagara, Mohammad Mian Soomro, Qamaruzaman Shah and others for supporting the anti-Sindh project.
Protest demonstrations were held at Dadu, Thatta, Hyderabad, Sukkur and Rohri. At Rohri Railway Station the protestors chained themselves with the track to stage a sit-in resulting in suspension of railways traffic for about two hours. Blocking railways' traffic is a serious matter which if stretched to other parts of the province would have serious consequences.
The leaders of PPPP, PML (N), Shehri Ittehad, JSQM and SAT also brought out rallies both at Rohri and Sukkur.
Pakistan Human Rights Group Sindh Chapter also strongly protested over police action on women protesting against the KBD project at Lahore and is of the view that the government by riding the dead horse of KBD is creating hatred between the people of federating units.
The protestors also slammed the statement of State Minister Umar Ayub Khan on the construction of KBD and posed a question that why his grandfather gave preference to construction of Tarbela Dam over KBD which is matter of record.
Was it because he was told that the KBD would submerge a large area in NWFP including Nowshera which would have a negative impact on his popularity graph or was it for creating a safe constituency for his family?
They also denounced statements of Information Minister Sheikh Rashid terming these statements as infantile insanity of power.
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