Zakk,
Someone at the HRCP must be on cheap bhung or something becaise I vehemenantly challenge this socalled “assesment.” This is much much more politicized. First off the number Punjabi is too high unless Hindko is grouped into it. And the number for Seraiki :hehe: must be a joke because if anything, there are more Pashto speakers.
Last time I checked everyone spoke Urdu if not as their mother tongue but certainly as a second language.
[QUOTE]
Originally posted by Faisal: *
One of his classic lines
*"Hamm kissi qeemat per Kalabagh dam nahi banay dein gay. Bhaiyon! Aap khud sochain... ye Dam Sindhiyon ke khilaaf aik Punjabi saazish hai. Ye chahtain hein ke Paani hamm takk puhunchnay say pehlay, ye uss mein say saari bijli nikal lein!!!"**
[/QUOTE]
^ Wow
Faisal Bhai...Idiot alert :D
Better water management and energy production for Pakistan is a must. In the past, the construction of Mangla dam provoked similar resentments from Mirpuris however if we look in the long the benefits are certainly evident.
Regarding Kalabagh, does the opposition present an alternative? or is this something that is hust opposed to as the illustrious leader mentions in Faisals timely quote.
I am curious to see a feasability study done on a series of smaller dams built on the Abasin (Indus). If Royalties and Ecological impacts are of concern we can share the damages and royalties. Ofcourse thats going to immediately become politicized as well.
interesting, on one hand the pashtun nationalists wont allow the construction of the dam citing the nowshehra will drown, but if mianwali is handed over they are fine with the dam...hmm, so their opposition is only coz of the royalty which punjab might get out of the dam?
^ Actually Zaavia, Sher Afghan is a PPP wala, now a "patriot" supporting the Jamali government. Some leaders from Sarhad do claim Mianwali and Attock as part of the province as it was previously prior to 1970. But i'd imagine the pashtun Nationalists would be further weakened by the inclusion of those areas. After all those areas tend to be PPP or PML even in the areas with pashtuns.
RF: The article I posted mentioned some alternatives to the Dam, there are plenty like Bhasha Dam and others. But, the provinces have been routinely told except during Mush's time, it's the KBD or nothing.
[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by Zakk: *
^ Actually Zaavia, Sher Afghan is a PPP wala, now a "patriot" supporting the Jamali government. Some leaders from Sarhad do claim Mianwali and Attock as part of the province as it was previously prior to 1970. But i'd imagine the pashtun Nationalists would be further weakened by the inclusion of those areas. After all those areas tend to be PPP or PML even in the areas with pashtuns.
RF: The article I posted mentioned some alternatives to the Dam, there are plenty like Bhasha Dam and others. But, the provinces have been routinely told except during Mush's time, it's the KBD or nothing.
[/QUOTE]
Zakk, I do not pretend to know about the dam..I only read a few reports regarding Kalabagh nor am I an ecologist. I think all alternatives must be looked at, if they are presented by the opposition. Can you please explain why Mush and many other people are pushing for Kalabagh?
Because they have been misled by some opportunists who will directly benefit from Kalabagh. Kalabagh Dam could very well be this century’s Awami League election debacle if carried through.
Simple: Money! It's all about money, these big projects can earn small companises and speculators millions from other wise sueless land. They also get to bring in their relatives and siafraishis from elsewhere for the labour work.
A friend of mine who lives near Tarbela Dam, was telling me, how often the local area suffers from load shedding, I think you'd be shocked if you knew how bad electricity supply is in those areas. I expect the same to happen now if the KBD is built.
Of course, the electricty produced will be given to industrial areas or to people who have influence in the government. The local people will get nothing but trouble.
The curse of Kalabagh is again bought up by another dictator
Is Musharraf blind to what people in Pakistan think about Kalabagh or is he conspiring to create more political problems in Pakistan? Why is he so detached with what people outside of Punjab have to say about Kalabagh Dam? It makes no sense why he would take such a hard line on this issue when their is so much opposition and the need for another huge dam is debatable. What will he gain from pushing this on the people? Other then a civil war. Those accusing Benazir of being an enemy of the state, Musharraf and other dictators like him are the real enemies for creating such upheaval.
Pakistan’s Mega-Dam Plan Hits Opposition Barrage
Wed Sep 3, 7:18 AM ET Add World - OneWorld.net to My Yahoo!
Ahmad Naeem Khan, OneWorld South Asia
LAHORE, Sept 3 (OneWorld) - Activists in Pakistan’s southern Sindh province have issued threats of civil disobedience and suicide bombings if construction begins on the controversial Kalabagh Dam, which will displace over 250,000 people and desecrate the environment.
• IRIN News
• Sustainable Development Network Pakistan
• International Union for Conservation of Nature
• Dawn
Supported by
Cable & Wireless
Last week, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf declared he would go ahead with the construction of the Kalabagh dam - which has been lying on paper for decades - on the Indus river, 100 miles south-west of Pakistan’s capital Islamabad.
The General said building the US $42 billion Kalabagh dam, which would generate 3,600 megawatts of electricity, was in the country’s best interests. Taking a tough line, he said the time had come for provinces to speedily resolve their water wars.
Stressing the urgency of the dam, Musharraf said over 17 million acre-feet of water, which could have been otherwise conserved, was wasted as it flowed into the sea.
But a barrage of criticism soon followed.
The provincial president of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, and leader of the Opposition in the Sindh province Assembly, Nisar Ahmed Khuhro, has threatened to unleash suicide bombers if the project is given the green light.
Khuhro is backed by a clutch of Sindhi nationalist leaders, who feel the dam is designed to benefit Pakistan’s largest and most dominant province, Punjab at the expense of the southern Sindh, southwestern Balochistan and North West Frontier Province (NWFP).
Dubbing the dam anti-people, they have threatened to launch a civil disobedience movement. “General Musharraf assured the drought-stricken people of Sindh two years ago that the dam would not be constructed and now he is talking in favor of it. We enjoy popular mandate and reject all such anti-Sindh plans,” Khuhro says.
Younus Khan, the representative of the Mohajir Qaumi Movement (Haqiqi) party describes the dam as Musharraf’s “Kalabagh bomb,” which could explode any time.
He claims Musharraf has deliberately ignited the issue to divert public attention from genuine problems.
In the North West Frontier Province (NWFP), the nationalist Awami National Party (ANP), has formed an Anti-Kalabagh Dam Front to mobilize public opinion.
ANP provincial chief Begum Nasim Wali Khan says a nationwide anti-dam movement would be launched from September 14 and appealed to international lending agencies against funding Kalabagh.
Khan says the project will damage the fertile districts of central NWFP and is detrimental to the area’s environment.
“We will not accept it at any cost,” she says, adding, “we will not compromise our economic interest and will not hesitate to render any sacrifice to protect our land.”
The PPP leader in the NWFP Assembly, Abdul Akbar Khan, says the NWFP, Sindh, and Balochistan have passed three resolutions each against the dam. He trashes Musharraf’s argument for the dam, claiming Pakistan has 2,000 megawatts of electricity in excess of its needs.
ANP provincial general secretary Farid Toofan threatens to take “every means necessary” to stop the federal government from building the dam, calling it “a matter of life and death for the (Pathan) nation.”
“The federation will not survive if the government goes ahead with its Kalabagh plan,” Toofan warns. “We are loyal to Pakistan. We want to live here, but no one should put us to the test,” he says.
The secretary-general of the six-party religious alliance Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (United Action Council), Maulana Fazalur Rahman, says, “General Musharraf is using the Kalabagh issue to create a rift between provinces.”
ANP’s Khan too believes the Center’s move is meant to serve the interests of Punjab at the cost of the three smaller provinces.
But the president of Punjab’s ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid-e-Azam, Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, says dams such as Kalabagh are vital for Pakistan’s development.
“Instead of opposing these dams and threatening to bomb them, we should play a positive role with mutual consultations for the completion of these projects,” says Hussain.
Activists are also spotlighting environmental concerns. A pro-Musharraf leader of the NWFP Assembly, Sikandar Hayat Khan Sherpao, maintains the dam will submerge towns such as Mardan, Charsadda and Nowshehra in the province.
The ancient town of Makkad, where the remains of a Buddhist civilization have been found, will go under water.
The dam will also displace over 250,000 people and adversely affect the livelihood of twice the number.
“Resettlement due to submergence of population centers and dislocation of other infrastructure facilities after the construction of the Dam will severely impact environment,” says environmental expert Shabbir-ul-Ahsan.
The locking up of water behind the dam could lay waste vast tracts of land downstream. The shortage of water for outflow to the sea has already caused reduction in the volume of silt.
The Indus once brought down 600 million tons of silt, of which half reached the sea and the rest fertilized the alluvial plain.
Today, just 36 million tons pass the upstream barrages and dams.
The Indus delta, which was spread over 350 sq kilometer and had nine perennial streams before Pakistan’s creation in 1947, has now shrunk to 25 sq kilometer fed by just two perennial streams.
The upshot - erosion and degradation of the delta, elimination of 600,000 acres of riverine forests, and reduction of mangrove areas from 263,000 hectares in 1977 to 158,500 hectares in 1990.
Several species of fish such as the famous Indus dolphin and sea cat and other aquatic species have become nearly extinct.
In several areas the catch is down to a tenth. Further reduction of fresh water flow will be a disaster for the common people and fishermen in coastal Sindh who depend on agriculture and fishery.
According to studies by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), if the mangroves are wiped out, there will be a domino effect on wildlife species such as porpoises, jackals, wild boars, reptiles and migratory fowls.
Take it down a notch, junior. Instead of talking about the controversy lets talk about solutions. Zakk, posted an article regarding Mianwali transfer, that was something to talk about. The blame Punjab argument is getting really old. If the country overall benefits from Kalabagh or any other settlement of the issue, it is fine by me.
Re: The curse of Kalabagh is again bought up by another dictator
[QUOTE]
*
The provincial president of the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, and leader of the Opposition in the Sindh province Assembly, Nisar Ahmed Khuhro, *has threatened to unleash suicide bombers if the project is given the green light. *
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they can blow themselves up 1st. then the problem solved.. no more cryin.. any way .. it is low using lives of illiterate people to work for ur advantage. there 170 million peoeple in. and because of 250.000 people (who can be placed somwhere else) the whole country is being problemised... and secoundly these politicins can go to hell..
BLOW UR SELF UP !ST!!!!
I think this whole issue at a time when the government is at it’s weakest isn’t a good omen for the present government. Still, this article just shows, that people in Punjab do realise the possible damage the Dam can cause.
LAHORE: Kalabagh dam termed recipe for disaster
http://www.dawn.com/2003/text/local24.htm
By Ashraf Mumtaz
LAHORE, Sept 3: Dr Mubashir Hasan, an expert on irrigation and provincial president of the PPP-SB, visualises a political disaster in the country if the government goes ahead with the Kalabagh dam and Greater Thal canal projects at a time when other provinces are opposing these projects tooth and nail.
“It is a recipe for political disaster, most unfortunate, but very real. The project should not be launched, no matter how useful or beneficial it is for the proponents, as other provinces don’t like it at all,” said Dr Hasan while talking to Dawn on Wednesday about the situation the country might have to face because of the controversial dam.
About the Thal canal, Dr Hasan said the federal government should not have started the work on it unless a project using an identical amount of water was prepared and launched in Sindh. Similar projects using a lesser amount of water should also have been prepared and launched in the Frontier province and Balochistan, he said.
The PPP(SB) leader raised some questions about the Thal canal. “Where will the water for the canal come from? If it will be flood surplus, as unofficially claimed, other provinces also have a legitimate claim on it.”
Dr Hasan said that if there was any surplus beyond the established usage, it had to be shared by the provinces according to the 1991 Accord. “The reality is that there cannot be any surplus unless new storage facilities are constructed.”
In his opinion the technical case for building a dam is not weak. “But it is a case for virtual suicide if it is not backed by political consensus. Let the provinces have political and administrative autonomy and they will approve not one but many dams to augment the irrigation supplies and restore the glory of Indus.”
Dr Hasan warned that the federal government would commit a political blunder if it went ahead with new water projects without forging a consensus among all the four provinces. “The attempts are destined to fail with grave political repercussions.”
He said the objections against the Kalabagh dam and the Thal canal projects were not merely technical or economic. “They are reflective of a deep resentment among the people of smaller provinces against the centralized, arrogant and self-righteous rule of Islamabad, Rawalpindi and Karachi over a period of five decades.”
The denial of provincial autonomy was the root cause, Dr Hasan said, adding that political leadership of the smaller provinces was in a position to muster strong popular support against implementation of these projects.
The federal government, he said, should not overlook the political danger inherent in irrigation projects for economic gains.
He said the design and the standard operating procedures of the dam were still a secret which the government should make public along with the cost estimates.
He recalled that a few years ago, Tarbela Dam could not be filled to capacity because of a shortage of water. He said the government should convince the people of Sindh about the facts and figures with regard to the availability of water for Kalabagh dam.
He said the Sindhi people should be told in what months would this water be stored, how much would be left for the areas above and below Kotri, what provisions have been made to compensate the losses to be caused by the change in regime of the river. The government should also explain where would the water of Kalabagh lake be used, by whom and in what months.