Daily Times

Sir: The general perception is that dams are not a priority for the rulers who are busy making money in construction of roads and flyovers through kickbacks, surely there will be much more money to be made in construction of a mega structure like a dam. It is a case of votes being more important than money, those opposing Kalabagh dam are minting votes by playing upon the fears of the voters, scaring them of floods at one end and desertification at the other end.

With anti Kalabagh dam sentiments running very high, any unilateral move by the PML-N government will cost it its vote bank in KP, Sindh and Balochistan, where support for PML-N is conditional to Kalabagh dam not being built without consensus.

Instead of blaming the government we should be blaming the politicians who have made the dam a bone of contention, the dam cannot even be mentioned, leave alone discussed, in the national assembly.

It is for the intelligentsia and the experts, with the help of the media, to debunk the falsehood that the dams have depleted the Indus river and reduced water supply to Sindh, when in fact the two dams have increased canal supplies by 20 maf, Sindh alone got an increase of 8.9 maf (35.6 to 44.5) with which Sindh was able to cultivate an additional 20 lakh acres.

Until the time that good sense prevails, no political party, in or out of government will want to commit political suicide

M MAAZ MEHBOOB

Karachi