LAHORE: Former NWFP caretaker Chief Minister and former Chairman Wapda, Engineer Shamsul Mulk has said that Pakistan direly needs to initiate networking with China, Nepal, Bangladesh and Afghanistan on water issue as India is deliberately creating problems for all the regional countries.

He was speaking at a function organised by Pakistan Water Front (PWF) here at the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry. LCCI Vice President Faisal Iqbal Sheikh, Convenor Pakistan Water Front, Shahzad Ali Malik, former LCCI President Tariq Hameed and EC Member Dr Shahid Raza also spoke on the occasion.

Engineer Shamsul Mulk said that he had been talking on the issue for a long time but unfortunately neither any politician nor any government gave due attention towards this problem, which has now put the very survival of the country at stake.

He also urged the government to establish Water Cell at Foreign Office so that the water issue could be taken up at the appropriate forum. He said that he had no second opinion about it that all those who were opposing the Kalabagh Dam were doing disfavour to the whole nation. He said, they were playing with future generations of this country. He said that it was unfortunate that our decision markers were not the victims of wrong decisions, as it only adversely affect the common man.

He said the dam is absolutely essential to irrigate 800000 acres of cultivable land that is located 100-150 feet above the Indus River level in NWFP. He said this land could only be brought under cultivation if the river level is raised that is only possible if Kalabagh Dam is built. He said the other alternative is to pump the water, which is very costly. He said creditable studies have indicated that pumping water for potential cultivable land would cost Rs 5000 to farmers per acre per year, while canal water after construction of Kalabagh Dam would cost only Rs 400 per acre per year.
 

Mulk said that NWFP politicians opposing the construction of the dam are in fact enemies of the people of province. He said historical data indicates that during the past 75 years average 146 million acres of water is available per year in river Indus. He said we throw on average 30 MAF of water per year in the sea -most of it during two months of monsoon. He said this water must be stored for irrigation and power generation.

He said the Kalabagh Dam issue has been so much politicised that a consensus would not be possible. The political leadership he added is manipulating the issue for their advantage. He said civil society would have to play a crucial role in creating a larger consensus, as new large water reservoirs would benefit every Pakistani.

He said a recent seminar on Hydro Politics in South Asia held at London concluded that China, India and Pakistan are poor in fresh water that has the potential to flare in to conflicts. He said India has got double standards when it comes to water rights. He said it claims right on the basis of upper riparian over use of this water against Pakistan, while in case of China and Nepal from where some of its rivers originate it claims water on historic use. However, he added before confronting India we must put our house in order. He said if we couldn't defend and prudently utilise our own resources we would not be able to fight for the similar resources being usurped by others.

Earlier speaking on the occasion, the Convenor Pakistan Water Front Shahzad Ali Malik said that it was not the Pakistan alone against which the Indian government was hatching water conspiracies but it was playing the same game with China, Bangladesh and Nepal. He said that Pakistan was on the brink of mass starvation as the process to turn it into a desert had begun because of a drastic cut in water availability from 5,000 cubic meters per capita in 1950s to 1000 cubic meter in 2010 despite the fact that water availability per capita ranks last amongst the Asian countries and Pakistan experiencing severe water stress. Without water 20 million acres of otherwise fertile land would dry up in a week and tens of millions of people would starve.

Courtesy: CSS Forum