History has been made. Let’s hope other dams like Kalabagh are also started soon.**
Musharraf opens work on Diamer-Basha Dam**
President Gen Pervez Musharraf on Wednesda laid the foundation stone for the $6.5 billion Diamer-Basha Dam, and vowed to build other major reservoirs including the controversial Kalabagh Dam by 2016. “I promise that we will build more such dams,” Musharraf said in his address at the dam site, some 177 kilometres from Gilgit, describing water as a matter of “life and death for Pakistan”. The Diamer-Basha dam - planned to generate 4,500 megawatts of power - is part of Gen Musharraf’s ‘2016 Water Vision’ programme that also envisages the construction of Kalabagh, Akori, Munda and Kuram Tangi dams by 2016. The president said that royalties from power generation from Diamer-Basha Dam would go to both the Northern Areas and NWFP. One turbine would be built in the territorial limits of the Northern Areas and the other at Basha village, which is in NWFP. The government will resettle people displaced by the dam in nine ‘model villages’, Musharraf said. Each displaced landowner will get compensation from the government at the market rate plus 10 percent, he said. The president said the proposed height of the dam would be reduced by 10 metres to prevent the submergence of Chilas city, but rejected demands of further height reduction to save the Chilas city air strip. The height of Diamer-Basha Dam will be 270 metres with the capacity to store 7.4 million acre feet (MAF) of water, with a live storage capacity of more than 6.4 MAF.
Agencies add: Gen Musharraf criticised previous governments for not building much-needed dams. “We need water to develop our agriculture while cheap energy is needed for industrial development,” he said. He said Pakistan’s water resources offered a capacity to generate 40,000 megawatts of hydropower, but currently it only exploited 6,000 megawatts, although it was a cheaper form of power generation than using oil. The president noted that the 14 independent power producers set up in 1994 were selling power at Rs 7 per unit, while hydropower only cost Rs 1 per unit. “The entire nation is suffering from this,” he said. Musharraf said he had given top priority to building dams as soon as he took power, initiating a feasibility study of Basha dam in 2001. “The work on Basha dam has now started and we will build all dams, we will build Kalabagh and Akori dams,” he said, while adding that water guarantees would be provided to NWFP and Sindh. The president pointed out that 35 MAF of water is wasted every year, equivalent to the capacity of six Basha dams. “This is despite the fact that the country is currently facing a 9 MAF shortage which will grow to 15-20 MAF by 2020.” He said work is underway on raising the capacity of Mangla Dam, which will allow the storage of an additional 2.9 MAF and help produce cheap electricity. The government is giving Rs 21 billion in compensation to those displaced by the project. Also on Wednesday, Gen Musharraf met members of the Northern Areas Legislative Council and heard their proposals for the development of their areas. The president said his government would promote tourism in the Northern Areas and connect it to the rest of the country through a rail network.
Re: President Musharraf opens work on Diamer-Basha Dam
Still following the same old pro-Punjab line are we? Kalabagh Dam is anti Sindh and anyone who is for it is anti Sindh. Though I doubt that matters to you or our current rulers.
Life and death? Is he joking? Electricity production is now a matter of life and death, but water being diverted from Sindh’s agriculture is not a matter of life and death? Maybe he is saying that Sindh is no longer considered part of Pakistan.
Either Musharraf is lying or he truly believes this nonsense of “water wastage” on the Indus. Open up today’s Dawn Metropolitan section and look at the picture of Indus downstream Kotri and tell me what “wastage” you see there! At least 35 MAF water is needed to maintain the ecology of Indus delta but right now the output downstream of Kotri is less than 10 MAF.
Sadly, there will be many fools who will believe Musharraf’s nonsense that was likely fed to him by some of our Punjabi “brothers”.
Re: President Musharraf opens work on Diamer-Basha Dam
Bengalis cried foul for years, no one heard and the result was devastation. 35 years later, same idiocracy is guiding the policy matters regardless of its being anti-people and property for most of the federating units. Its just one province and its interests which doomed the country and is leading her to an irreversibly damaging path.
Needless to remind that in Federation, if one unit says no to a Mega Project which affects life of many, its a big NO to it and has to be treated as such. I wonder if these idiots could register this legal binding!
Re: President Musharraf opens work on Diamer-Basha Dam
Bengalis cried foul and they are still crying foul. They are still dirt poor, their economy is less than half as that of Pakistan.
The same Bengalis cried foul about their Banga Bundu, and guess what?
They made minced meat out of their Banga, Banga's kids, grand kids, every woman, child, and man was chopped up. Only one daughter of Banga survived just because she was outside the "Sonaar Bangla".
So please, don't get rattled with Bengalis crying foul. And let us develop our country. Prez. Musharraf made a good decision by starting off with Bhasha before launching other dams like KBD.
We need to build these dams to improve our infrastructure, our economy, and above all "provide jobs" to our labor force.
Re: President Musharraf opens work on Diamer-Basha Dam
Silly Billy, Basha is a better option than Kalabagh because there will be no canals diverting water to Punjab like with Kalabagh. That is why opposition is more muted to it. But the huge problem of less water flow downstream still remains with any storage dam on the Indus. If a referendum or poll were to be held in Sindh, 90% of people would be opposed to any storage dam on Indus. It would be opposite in Punjab. There is a complete divide in Sindh and Punjab over the issue. And Islamabad always supports Punjab's point of view showing the true nature of Pakistan's government.
Re: President Musharraf opens work on Diamer-Basha Dam
99% are against any Storage Dam, Bhasha included. The fact that you proudly quote is that 4 CMs agreed is twisted. First of all I do not consider the present regime to be legal and representative. Its installed and exploitative so whatever decision these people make are illegal and illegitimate. Second, Arbab was made CM on conditions, one of them is to toe the federal line and accept what is being decided in Islamabad. Had he been representative or belonging to a party who represents the majority of the people, his decisions would have been different.
And I have serous reservations on your wishes that KBD be built. My generalised opinions perhaps refer to your kind of mentality.
Re: President Musharraf opens work on Diamer-Basha Dam
National interests and referendums are good thing. May be we should hold a referendum in Sindhi speaking areas to see how many of them oppose us the Urdu Speaking people. Wanna bet?
Re: President Musharraf opens work on Diamer-Basha Dam
2paki, I suggest you read the 1940 Lahore resolution and understand the working of a federation before commenting again.
Antiobl, likewise you can ask people in Balochistan, Sindh and NWFP want they want to do with Punjab and you will not be to happy with the answers. So, let's stick to the issues, which is this dam and water sharing. These are the important issues that need to be addressed, not your fantasy of wanting mohajirs to leave Sindh.
Sindhi parties like PPP (at least when not in power), JSQM, AT etc are the most vocal against these dams, while MQM has been more muted. Mohajirs will suffer the least in Sindh due to these dams since most of us don't depend on farming or fishing like Sindhis do.
Re: President Musharraf opens work on Diamer-Basha Dam
I disagree with you here. Its the rural economy which sustains the urban industrailsed Sindh. With no water in the rest of the Province, the urban Sindh would suffer equally with increased food prices and the pressure of migrating unemployed rural population.
One word of caution: Karachi and Hyderabad are not inhabitated by Muhajirs alone and so is rural Sindh not populated with Sindhis solely. Its this freaking mentality which irks Sindhis the most.
Re: President Musharraf opens work on Diamer-Basha Dam
I agree Capricorn, the divide between rural and urban Sindh is much less then most of us think. We are indeed in this together.
2paki, this is not about sports but water issues. Everyone has the right to water. And I hope you join your sikh jatts in khalistan and leave us alone.
Re: President Musharraf opens work on Diamer-Basha Dam
It is true that not everyone in Sindh is against Basha, but many still are. But what does it matter what Sindh thinks since it never gets its way in Pakistan. See Kalabagh dam issue for proof.