What price ignorance Dec 06

by Khurshid Anwer

 

My letter to the press -  Today the Sindh assembly stabbed Sindh in the back. Tarbela dam is the mainstay of agriculture in Sindh.

 

It has lost 30 percent of its storage capacity to silting and there is a corresponding decrease in the supply of water to Sindh.

While the demand in Sindh will go on increasing as the years go by, the supply from Tarbela dam will go on decreasing until one day it will stop completely.

Bhasha dam is at least fifteen years away. Of the other alternates to Kalabagh dam, only Akhori dam has a sizeable storage capacity but it is in Punjab and will meet with the same mindless objections. Also it will generate only 600 megawatts .

Bunji and Dasu dams which have sizeable generating capacity have negligible storage capacity. So how will Sindh cope with the ever rising demand of its ever rising population.

 

All this misery just because Kalabagh dam is in Punjab and in this day and age of technology we feel we cannot ensure equitable shares to all the stakeholders. What price ignorance?          Khurshid Anwer