Kalabagh Dam: Vital for National Economy and Food Security
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LAHORE: Kalabagh Dam has been termed as Vital for National Economy and Food Security of Pakistan.
Kalabagh Dam is crucial to cope with the challenges energy shortage, food security, famine and floods.
In the absence of a mega dam, the country was suffering from a loss of Rs 132 billion annually.
According to experts, there was no threat to Nowshehra city as it was 150 feet above the water level, asserting that historical data indicated that during past 75 years average 146 million acres of water was available per year in River Indus.
Unlike Pakistan, India was constructing dams at every possible site and had left us decades behind.
Existing dams are constantly silting up leaving ever-decreasing capacity to store water. The construction of the KBD along with other new dams was desperately needed to store adequate water.
According to a conservative estimate about 30 million acres feet of water was being wasted into the sea because the country had no big water reservoirs to store it. More importantly, as a result of melting of glaciers due to global warming, a sword of Damocles remains hanging over our heads in the shape of floods.
From Kalabagh reservoir, water can not only be used for generation of electricity but can also be utilised to irrigate the barren areas of KPK, Sindh and Balochistan.
The site of Kalabagh is a natural dam, which can be constructed in much less time with less cost than a regular dam. It can store and preserve all that water flowing from rivers Indus, Swat and Kabul, which at present is going waste and falls into the Arabian sea.
The length of Kalabagh dam reservoir will be 80 km. From there the Nowshera city is 110 km away, and if the dam is full to its ends, the height of Nowshera will be 60 feet above that level. So, the story which has been framed by a political party of KPK, that Nowshera will be drowned, does not have any truth to it.
However, 800,000 acres barren land will be irrigated with the increase in the level of the river. This area is 100-150 feet above river level, when the level of the river is raised, it would be easily irrigated.
The same way, around 1,000,000 acres of land of Sindh will also be irrigated from the water reservoir of Kalabagh-Dam.
The politicians and Feudal lords of Sindh also have framed a story for their poor and uneducated people that if Kalabagh Dam is constructed, river Indus will have no water in flow and sea water will enter inside the river bed, damaging the lands. This is just a story to confuse the poor farmers and small land owners, so that they don’t get benefit of water for their fields, which can result them a better living and educating their children.
In addition to irrigation, Kalabagh Dam would also generate 3600 megawatts of electricity, which when added to the national grid will bring down the electricity cost. Delay in the construction of this dam is criminal on part of the rulers, politicians and leaders, because it is their utmost duty to look after national interest.
