Sense has finally taken over. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s latest call for expanding Pakistan’s water storage capacity is welcome news. It is about time someone realized that what the country needs more than anything for its survival is more water reservoirs. The unusually positive thing is that the premier linked water storage to flood safety, rather than just electricity generation, which shows a much-needed shift in approach.
Year after year, the country has suffered horrid floods during the monsoons and then spent the next six to eight months protesting India for not releasing enough water under the Indus Waters Treaty, which New Delhi abrogated this year, unilaterally and illegally. However, the elephant in the room that Pakistan always ignores is its own incapability to manage water and the sheer incapacity to store it for the dry spell ahead. In such a situation, the PM’s statement-cum-resolve offers a glimmer of hope for the water-starved nation.
The current floods, triggered by record-breaking rainfalls, cloudbursts, glacier melting, and India’s ‘benevolence’ in the form of water terrorism, have hit Pakistan like a wrecking ball. More than 800 people have lost their lives to rain- and flood-related incidents. Gushing waters have thrown hundreds of thousands out of their homes across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab, and beyond.
Moreover, rivers like Chenab and Ravi have been spilling their guts, drowning villages and sweeping away farmers’ livestock and livelihoods. All this happens mainly because of the country’s inability to hold on to what falls from the sky or comes down the mountains. The country’s dams also tell a story of decay.
While the 1960s saw the completion of the Mangla Dam and the 1970s the Tarbela Dam, the ambitious plan to build one mega-dam per decade failed as the dam-building vision crumbled. Shifting away from that inertia will be the first test for the state
As per WAPDA’s latest figures, the three major dams – Tarbela, Mangla, and Chashma – despite having a storage capacity of more than 16.26 million acre-feet, can only squirrel away 11.72 MAF due to sedimentation and inadequate maintenance. That should have rung alarm bells long ago, as this water is enough for barely a month. What’s worse is that more than 35 MAF of floodwater that can be utilized just slips away to the Arabian Sea every year. And that is not even half the story.
The fact that Pakistan has to extract well over 50 MAF of groundwater annually is disturbing. That is more than what nature can cough back up, considering the inadequate groundwater recharge facility the country possesses. While the 1960s saw the completion of the Mangla Dam and the 1970s the Tarbela Dam, the ambitious plan to build one mega-dam per decade failed as the dam-building vision crumbled. Shifting away from that inertia will be the first test for the state.
The urgency Shehbaz Sharif highlighted must translate into shovels in the ground at the earliest. Besides building small and medium ground reservoirs across provinces to capture rainwater, authorities must resume work on the three stalled dams – Mohmand, Diamer-Bhasha, and Dasu Dam – immediately. The announcement to generate own resources to build dams and new reservoirs is a step in the right direction. For this, options such as public-private partnerships or dedicated water bonds must be explored to raise funds quickly. The country desperately needs walls of stone and water behind them. That alone will measure if the government has delivered.
