The Kalabagh Dam?
By the Editor

HIGHLIGHTING the significance of Pakistan's water requirements in the times ahead, President Gen Pervez Musharraf has said that all major water reservoirs including Kalabagh Dam will be built to ensure availability of adequate water for irrigation.

Inaugurating PARC’s silver jubilee celebrations in Islamabad, he called for optimizing country’s agricultural production through use of latest agri-technology.

Construction of major reservoirs is certainly a question of life and death for the nation in view of the country’s growing demand of water for agriculture and drinking purposes.

The nation needs to produce enough food grains, vegetables, edible oil, raw material, electricity, besides meeting the drinking water requirements of its growing population.

And availability of adequate quantity of water is the essential prerequisite for which dams are a must. There is, therefore, no other option for Pakistan but to go for major reservoirs for its survival.

Virtually, it’s unfortunate that the successive governments had failed to comprehend the monstrous problems arising out of the impending water shortage.

The provinces are already on loggerheads over the distribution of water. An inter-provincial and Centre-provinces disharmony has already overwhelmed the country.

To build new major dams is, therefore, an inescapable national imperative. The reiteration of the determination to build all the major dams by President Musharraf is thus welcome.

The nation, however, awaits a categorical and definite statement about the Kalabagh Dam, which has already seen undue and inordinate delay owing to its politicization by the vested interests.

Ambiguous statements over the past seven years have kept the nation guessing about the future of the project. We fail to understand what prevents the government from making a definite decision to start work on the KBD in order to end uncertainty.

Of-course, we are convinced that President Musharraf, who is the leader of vision and great courage to undertake such projects, can alone build the KBD.

He has already campaigned for consensus on it with convincing and logical arguments for its construction in the supreme national interests.

Besides, a lot of ground work has already been done on it in addition to the dumping of huge money on its preparatory jobs.

There is, therefore, no room for deviation from this project in view of the high stakes that the country has on it.

As a matter of fact, the nation eagerly awaits a clear and definite pronouncement about the date for initiation of work on its construction rather than persistent sheer statements about its plans or destiny.●