RECORDER REPORT

LAHORE: Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) has said that Kalabagh Dam should not be ignored in the federal budget 2018-19 at any cost as particularly water scarcity is heading towards point of no return.

LCCI President Malik Tahir Javaid in a statement on Thursday said the opponents of Kalabagh Dam are not aware of the ground realities. How a mega water & power project can be injurious for an agrarian country, he questioned.

He said that one million acre feet of water gives benefit $2 billion annually to the economy while Pakistan is throwing away 35 million acre feet of water just because of delay in construction of Kalabagh Dam, it mean that we are wasting $70 billion annually to the sea that are equal to the country’s external debt. The dam was due to be completed in 1993 that mean that delay in its construction has already cost $288 billion to the country.

He said that the government should not bow-down to those who always remained paralyzed to the Indian water aggression and are protecting the interests of Pakistan’s enemies.

Malik Tahir Javaid said that Kalabagh Dam should have been built soon after the Indus Water Treaty because it was inevitable after losing the Rivers Ravi and Satluj to India but past governments ignored it completely. He said that under ground water level has been gone more than 80 feet below due to plantation of tube wells in the valleys of Ravi and Satluj.

The dam, if built, would have storage capacity of 6 million acre feet of water that could give benefit of $12 billion annually to the economy. The LCCI President said the Kalabagh Dam will help avoid tragedies like Tharparker and will give 2.6 million acre feet of water to the River Indus, additional water to Dera Murad Jamali, Sibbi and Dera Bugti of Balochistan and will also overcome the destruction caused by deadly floods every year, he added.