President Musharraf opens work on Diamer-Basha Dam

[Khehkeshan]

Re: President Musharraf opens work on Diamer-Basha Dam

@Silly Billy

History has been made. Let’s hope other dams like Kalabagh are also started soon.**

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.

“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.

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.

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.”

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”.