LAHORE: The Lahore Chamber of Commerce & Industry has welcomed the Prime Minister Imran Khan’s concern over losses caused by dearth of dams and urged the government to allocate adequate funds for construction of much-needed reservoirs in the federal budget 2022-23.
“New dams are direly needed for Pakistan, not only to generate cheap and sufficient electricity but also to avert the threat of food security”, LCCI acting president Mian Rehman Aziz Chan said in a statement.
Chan said that water shortage is one of the biggest reasons of electricity shortage at the one hand while raising food security challenges on the other.
He said that policy corridors would have to understand that economic growth lies in construction of water reservoirs which are a cheap source of electricity. The government would have to create consensus for the early construction of water reservoirs.
He said that rising population graph can give birth to severe food security challenges in near future therefore we have to build water reservoirs including Kalabagh dam at any cost as it would bring huge part of land under cultivation which is currently lying idle due to lack of water.
He said that it is a matter of concern that millions hectors of fertile land is not being cultivated due to unavailability of water. He said that Pakistan needs grow to feed its population and only solution of this challenge is Kalabagh dam.
Chan said that being an agrarian economy, Pakistan cannot afford to waste huge amount of water resources which are depleting fast. Shortage of water has not only caused undue damage to the agriculture sector but the manufacturing sector as well as it has not cheap energy.
He said that our economy is based on agriculture sector which cannot survive without sufficient water resources. He said that we are already suffering and further delay in the construction of dams would hit us hard.
“Kalabagh Dam issue has been so much politicized that a consensus seems difficult therefore the government would have to take decision”, he added.
Chan said that sword of floods is hanging on our heads during the summer season. “An opinion gained widespread support across the country that the losses of past floods in Pakistan which were estimated to be billion dollars could have been reduced if big dams and water reservoirs were in place”, he added.
He said that Kalabagh dam is the most suitable project for the national economy as it would not only produce cheap and sufficient electricity but would also avert the devastation caused by the floods.
He said that Kalabagh dam is a must to control the poverty & hunger and those who were opposing the KBD were enemies of this country as they were playing with the country‘s future.
He said that the civil society would also have to play its role in creating a consensus as new water reservoirs would benefit every Pakistani.
Chan further said that everyone knows that the existing dams are constantly silting up leaving ever decreasing capacity to store water. The construction of new dams is desperately needed to store adequate water. According to a conservative estimate over 30 million acre feet of water is being wasted into the sea because the country has no big water reservoirs to store it.
He said that Prime Minister Imaran Khan have pointed out a serious issue and hoped that the government would allocate adequate funds in the upcoming federal budget.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022
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