The federal cabinet's decision to earmark funds in the next year's PSDP to acquire land for five mega water projects, including the Kalabagh Dam, demonstrates the government's firm resolve to go ahead with the dams' construction, consensus or no consensus.
The President has already inaugurated the construction of Diamer-Bhasha Dam. The government is now planning to seek funding for the mega projects as part of its "2016 Water Vision" strategy. The cabinet members are rightly of the view that the projects have already been delayed for too long. Their decision to allocate funds represents the critical next step towards realisation of the goal of building additional water reservoirs in the country.
The government plans to provide constitutional, judicial and administrative guarantees to the opponents of the projects, to allay their reservations and win their support.
Incidentally, the provincial assemblies of Sindh, NWFP, and Balochistan have already passed strongly worded resolutions, voicing their opposition to Kalabagh Dam, the construction of which has been sensibly delayed. The powerful anti-dam lobby in the three smaller provinces had seen the renewed debate as a shrewd move to gauge the depth of their sentiment.
It cannot be denied that Pakistan is caught up in a tightening water and energy squeeze, because of non-construction of additional water reservoirs. As a result, some 35 million acre feet (maf) of water flows down into the sea unutilised each year, which represents a colossal national loss.
This has also frustrated the plans for tapping the country's vast hydel potential. With our GDP growth target set at between 6.5 to 7 percent, increased availability of water and electricity is absolutely essential. And this can be achieved only through construction of additional water reservoirs.
Massive silting at the existing big dams has sharply curtailed their water storage, and hence power generation capacity.
The country's annual energy deficit is projected to be at least 1,000 megawatts from 2007 onwards, while our demand for electricity is growing by six to seven percent per annum under the pressure of rapid industrialisation, and by the year 2012 we will need an additional 5,000 megawatts of electricity. With the steep rise in oil prices, the thermal option has become prohibitive.
This leaves us with the only viable option of hydel power, which is the cheapest source of energy. Solar parks and windmills, etc can act only as supplementary props.
The other major option is coal, which anyway is too cumbersome. Unfortunately, the issue of dams has become so politically charged as to become something like the proverbial "red rag" for the smaller provinces. The reason why successive governments have failed to build a consensus on construction of big water reservoirs, particularly Kalabagh dam, is that they have at times tried to use the divisive potential of the issue to their political advantage, prompting the smaller provinces to further harden their position.
Alternatively, instead of trying to build a consensus through parliament, the ruling elite has sometimes tended to bulldoze it by fiat. This has deepened provincial alienation. The perceived denial to smaller provinces of their rightful share in the federal divisible pool etc is another cause of mounting tension between Punjab and the smaller federating units.
The present government, like its predecessors, has tended to treat the issue of dams purely as a technical matter, deliberately downplaying its political aspect.
This has only fanned inter-provincial antipathy. Instead of bulldozing decisions, the government should take the issue to the parliament, hold a threadbare debate to resolve the differences through compromise, and evolve a national consensus before rushing ahead into the implementation phase.
This is basically a political issue that needs to be handled politically through addressing the smaller federating units' concerns and reservations. Nobody can deny that the dams have to be built for the sake of the country's well-being. Why not do it through national consensus?
Comments
Comments are closed.