Chowrangi

Government of Pakistan is establishing new companies to build the big dams in the country. These companies will accumulate billions of rupees in eight or nine years from national and international markets. This is a very nice step, though bit late, but its never too late, as they say.

A company has already started its work in this regard for Neelum Jehlum dam, as was told by Salman Shah, who is the financial advisor of prime minister. He also said that they are working real hard to erect a solid corporate infrastructure of these companies on modern basis. 20 billion dollars would be gathered for the construction of Neelum Jehlum dam, and it would render 1000 megawatt power.

Another grand project is the development of Dyameer Bhasha dam, which is expected to produce 4500 megawatt electricity and would cost round about 65 billion dollars. All this money would be piled up from national and international markets through the corporate companies. Likewise, government has planned to buildup five big dams in the future which include Dyameer Bhasha dam, Akori Kuram dam, Tangi dam, Munda dam and Kalabagh dam.

Pakistan is an agricultural country, and is highly likely to remain in the even far future, as there is no chance of any sort of digital or industrial revolution. For agriculture, lots of energy and power is inevitable. Precious water of rivers is being thrown into the sea. For many decades, every party or individual raises slogan about building the dams at every cost, but once they are in the driving seat they succumb to pressure of ‘wadaira shahi’ and dams have become a very conflicting issue in the country.

For example, Kalabagh dam was planned even before the construction of Tarbela dam, but now it has become a political issue and just due to some land owners, it is not being built. This issue has been stretched very long, and five dams could easily be built in that period, but our politicians opted for other expensive and polluted power and ignored this very crucial aspect of the national economy and welfare. Thermal projects are now taking their toll from the poor people of this country. Just look at the hub of the country, Karachi, which has become a model city of load-shedding, and rest of the country follows the suit.

People are not only paying hefty bills, but also are suffering from long and painful hours of load-shedding, while leaders enjoy. Its the duty of of government to make the people aware of the benefits of dam especially of Kalabagh dam and tell them it would only store the excessive waters of floods and rains and nobody except the ‘wadaira shahi’ will get little blows. Construction of big and small dams is inevitable if we want to live in lights in the coming times.

Other posts by Commoner

• Clear the Dust - November 20th, 2008
• Exactly What They Want - November 20th, 2008
• Punjab Heats Up - November 19th, 2008
• Eyeball to Eyeball - November 18th, 2008
• No Surprises There - November 18th, 2008
• Yousuf Ready to Leave "Power" - November 18th, 2008
• OGRA Website Hacked By Indian Hackers - November 17th, 2008
• Friends Of Pakistan Again Disappoints - November 17th, 2008
• New But Old Dimensions - November 17th, 2008
• After the Loan - November 16th, 2008