PRIME Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Thursday underscored the urgent need for constructing new water reservoirs, terming them essential to deal with recurring flood situations and climate change challenges.
Speaking during his visit to the flood affected areas in Narowal, he said that short, medium and long-term policies must be formulated to mitigate the impact of natural disasters. The PM warned that such climate-related challenges would persist in the future, stressing the importance of coordinated efforts between the federation and provinces.
There is no denying the fact that the successive governments were guilty of criminal negligence as far as construction of new water reservoirs is concerned despite numerous feasibility reports and plans announced with fanfare to exploit water potential of the country for achieving energy security, meeting growing needs for irrigation and minimizing impact of floods through water conservation. Our collective failure is evident from the fact that the country could not add to its water storage capacity after completion of two mega dams – Mangla and Tarbela – way back in 1967 and 1976 respectively. We afforded the luxury of wasting too much time in deciding the fate of several feasible and important projects making them controversial by vested interests. It is known to all how politics was done over Kalabagh Dam, which had the potential to contribute significantly to boost agricultural production and to tap the flood water during periods like the one we are passing through these days. Similarly, systematic campaigns were launched to scuttle implementation of canals project in Punjab despite written assurances that these canals will be fed either by flood water or Punjab’s own share of water under the water distribution accord. In view of the climate change and its devastating impact on human life and infrastructure as confirmed by the ongoing rains and floods and those of 2022, the Prime Minister had a point in highlighting the importance of water storage as without increasing storage capacity, all other efforts aimed at progress and development would remain incomplete. Apart from speedy completion of Bhasha and Mohmand dams, there is also a need to construct all other feasible big, medium and small dams.
The Prime Minister has already assigned this task to a broad-based task force, which should come out with a comprehensive plan after thorough input and consultation of the respective provinces and stakeholders. We also must learn from the lesson that we have learnt from repeated devastating floods to shun the tendency of making all water related projects controversial for the sake of petty political gains. PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and another senior leader of the party Sherry Rehman are ardent supporters of plans to mitigate impact of climate change and they should help build national consensus for a robust strategy. It is imperative for all to understand that it takes years and massive investment to complete major reservoirs, therefore, we have no time to waste if we are serious in planning for the future. It is also a reality that funding is one of the major impediments in realization of major water projects, therefore, it is advisable that the provinces should initially work on medium and small dams as have been repeatedly identified by various studies. The Prime Minister has stressed the need for exploring water storage options in Chiniot and northern areas through small dams but studies indicate feasibility of hundreds of such dams in KP, Azad Kashmir and Punjab. And to mitigate the impact of floods, Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz rightly underscored the need to strengthen infrastructure, improve dams, expand water storage capacity and clear waterways of encroachments and hopefully her Government will move to realize these objectives without wasting more time. An effective campaign is already underway in Punjab’s urban areas against encroachments and this should be expanded to include removal of illegal structures from waterways.
