Asia Times: Thousands fight drowning in misery


	June 20, 2000	atimes.com

India/Pakistan

Thousands fight drowning in misery
By Muddassir Rizvi

ISLAMABAD - The severe drought in large parts of southern Pakistan has cheered the small but powerful group of supporters of a proposed giant dam that is caught up in regional political rivalry.

These include the military government which says the dam, to be built on the banks of the River Indus near the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) town of Kalabagh, is the only way Pakistan can meet its growing water needs.

Pakistan's worst water scarcity crisis this century has affected more than a million peasants in large areas of Sindh and Baluchistan, driving tens of thousands to leave their homes. The government argues that large water storage reservoirs like the Kalabagh dam can store the huge amount of Indus water that flows down unused to the Arabian Sea every year.

However, the 3,600 megawatt river project, estimated to cost $7 billion, is vociferously opposed by three of the country's four provinces. The sole exception is the most populous province of Punjab. The project has been controversial since 1952 when the US Bureau of Reclamation found the site unsuitable for a dam. However, in 1980, the World Bank recommended that the project be implemented.

But successive governments, including the strong military regime under Ziaul Haq in the 1980s, failed to start work on the project because of strong political protests in provinces other than Punjab. The Kalabagh project again made news in late May when a state lawyer told the highest court in Punjab that the government was thinking of starting work on the dam.

The government's declaration has angered strong nationalist parties in other provinces who allege that the dam would sharpen regional disparities. Their main objection to the dam is that it would benefit only Punjab at the cost of other provinces. The strong public reaction has forced the military government to issue a clarification stating that the dam would be built only after a political consensus among the provinces.

Politicians in the provinces are still not convinced, however, especially with newspapers reporting that the office of Pakistan's military ruler Pervez Musharraf had sought reports from the government departments dealing with the Kalabagh project. Critics also expressed their fear the government would push ahead with the controversial scheme after seeking a nod from the unelected administrations now ruling the provinces.

Provincial leaders have pointed out that the elected provincial legislatures in Sindh, NWFP and Baluchistan had unanimously rejected the project in the past. ''Now, what consensus are they [the military government] talking about when there is consensus among three provinces that this dam should not be built?'' asked a leader of the Awami National Party that represents the Pushto-speaking population of the NWFP.

Farmers groups in Sindh allege that the Kalabagh Dam would damage farming in their province while benefiting Punjab farmers. ''Already, our province is facing severe water shortages leaving large tracts of land barren. Kalabagh would only increase water scarcity in areas along the Indus downstream and at the same time irrigate lands in Punjab,'' complained the Sindhi Hari Tehrik (Sindh Farmer's Movement).

However, its supporters reject the charge and instead accuse opponents of playing politics. ''Vested political interests are opposing the project to seek cheap popularity and to create hatred against Punjab,'' said Nasim Hassan Shah, a former chief justice of the country's Supreme Court, at a seminar on the issue held late May in the Punjab capital Lahore.

''It is the most researched and investigated project in the world, approved by irrigation and dam experts of international fame,'' says Zahid Ali Akbar, a former chairman of the state-run Water and Power Development Authority.

Green groups are not persuaded by such arguments, however. Environmentalists have long objected to the proposal. They counter that the dam reservoir would submerge about 160,000 hectares of farm land and make about a quarter of a million people homeless. If built, the dam would also increase salinity and waterlogging, while reducing downstream flows that would harm mangrove and riverine forests, say environmental experts.

Green groups have advised the government to look at options. The Sungi Foundation and the Sustainable Development Policy Institute have suggested that the government should look at ways to ''make distribution and use of irrigation water and energy more equitable and efficient''.

(Inter Press Service)

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