By Aamir Latif
KARACHI, Pakistan
With Pakistan's weather becoming ever more volatile over the past five years, some parts of the country have become used to regular mass flooding, while elsewhere people have struggled with drought and water shortages.
Much of the floodwater drains straight into the Arabian sea on Pakistan's southern coast but some experts have argued that it could be used to ease the water shortages by building more reservoirs in the country.
Despite the repeated warnings over droughts for years to come, Pakistan's politicians have remained locked into a decades-long political dispute over constructing new dams.
The ongoing controversy began in 1980s with then military ruler General Zia-ul-Haq floating a plan for the construction of one the world’s largest dams across the Indus river -- which flows from western Tibet through the whole of Pakistan -- in order to meet the country’s future water needs.
The plan has since stayed on the back burner, following strong opposition from three of the country's four provinces.
Only Punjab, the country’s richest and largest province, where the dam would be located, favors the projects while the three smaller provinces, Sindh, Baluchistan and Khyber Pakthunkhwa all strongly oppose the construction of the Kalabagh dam.
Their varied reasons include the flooding it would cause to large areas of land, mass displacement of people and water theft.
The nationalist parties from southern Sindh province have demanded that no more dams are built along the Indus river, claiming that Punjab already takes Sindh's share of water and that further construction would aggravate the alleged theft.
Sindh is also concerned that disrupting the flow of the Indus into the Arabian sea would cause seawater to begin intruding inland.
Khyber Pakthunkhwa is more concerned by the flooding of land and mass displacement, as was caused by the country's last mega power and water project four decades ago; the Terbela dam.
The pitch from Punjab is that, apart from storing water, the Kalabagh could help with Pakistan's other serious deficiency, in energy.
Pakistan has a 6,000 megawatt shortfall in power capacity which leads to regular power outages that have hindered the country's economic development and often lead to protests. Over 1,400 people were killed by a stifling heat wave last month which was aggravated by power cuts in southern Pakistan.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has tried to address the issue by focusing a large share of a $46 billion Chinese investment into power projects.
He had previously announced the building of the controversial dam during a previous stint in office in 1998, as did former military ruler General Pervez Musharraf in 2005 but both had to reverse their decisions following widespread demonstrations in the three provinces.
“There has been so much politics on the construction of new water reservoirs in the country. A completely technical issue has turned out to be a bone of contention among the provinces just because of this politics and blame game,” said Karachi-based political analyst Mazhar Abbas. “Each and every government has wasted time. If there has been no consensus on the Kalabagh dam, other small dams and reservoirs could have been built over the last 30 years.”
The 4,500 mw hydropower Bhasha dam, to be built in the northern Skurdu district, has faced similar barriers. Construction work has not yet started despite announcements by two different governments since 2006, as the government has failed to acquire the land for the dam following opposition from local politicians.
Experts warn that if the government fails to construct a large water reservoir in the next eight to ten years, Punjab and Sindh provinces will lose much of its fertile land and farmers will be unable to cultivate water intensive crops like sugarcane and rice.
“Construction of new dams and reservoirs should be the government’s priority because it is essential not only for water security but for the energy security,” Islamabad-based environmental expert Qamar-uz-Zaman told Anadolu Agency.
Zaman, who headed Pakistan's Meteorological Department until last year, said Pakistan could have converted the devastation caused by recent floods into an opportunity, if it had constructed new dams and reservoirs.
“Dams are not only meant for water storage but they regulate the floodwater also, especially in the case of river floods,” he added. “It’s high time for Pakistan to immediately start construction of new dams and reservoirs, which is a must to cope with the country’s water and energy needs in coming years.”
