THE FEDERAL CABINET has decided to take political parties into confidence before announcing a decision on the construction of a mega dam considered by all vital to meet fast growing irrigation and power requirements of the country. This indeed is a welcome step the modalities of which would soon be spelt out by Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz. In a democratic set up it is important that every one should be consulted but overall decision has to be made keeping in view the supreme national interests. The majority’s will however has to prevail in the end. A high-level World Bank mission had recommended that Pakistan must build a big dam in the 80’s or at best in early 90,s. Successive Governments due mainly to political considerations failed to decide on the issue. Meanwhile, due to silting the holding capacity of the existing Tarbella and Mangla Dams gradually dwindled and suddenly we realized that more big dams were urgently required to avoid wastage of some 38 million acre feet of water which flows annually into the sea. Without more big dams, agriculture would remain deprived of irrigation water and energy shortages would continue to impede our industrial progress.
It goes to the credit of President Pervez Musharraf that he has assigned highest priority to this issue. For the past few years, controversy over the desirability of big dams, feasible location of Kalabag Dam and replacement of Kalabagh Dam by proposed Bhasha Dam upstream of Tarbella has been raging. Feasibility study costing a huge amount has already been carried out for Kalabagh Dam which is undisputedly a natural site for a big dam. The politicians from Frontier and Sindh provinces were opposed to taking out of a canal from the proposed dam for irrigation of vast cultivable lands in the Punjab. The Federal Government in an effort to develop consensus decided to change the dam design thereby dropping the provision for a canal for the north-western part of the Punjab. However, the politicians from smaller provinces continue to oppose Kalabagh Dam for a variety of reasons. All agree that holding capacity of the existing Tarbela and Mangla Dams has been substantially reduced and we need more water reservoirs. Instead small dams are being proposed. The NWFP politicians suggest that Kalabagh Dam be replaced by a big Dam at Bhasha though its feasibility study is yet to be carried out and with the monumental tragedy which devastated among others areas near the proposed Bhasha Dam site, it appears risky to locate a mega dam in an area which is one the fault line.
The foreign and local experts have thoroughly examined the issue and in their considered view Pakistan needs to build two and more big dams to meet its future needs. The Provincial Assemblies of NWFP, Sindh ands Balochistan have already passed resolutions opposing construction of Kalabagh Dam. The project is being opposed by NWFP politicians lithe realizing that a dam at Bhasha will not become a reality even by 2020. Work on Kalabagh Dam can begin even a few months from now as all preliminaries have since been completed. Political parties are divided on the issue. Some opposition parties like the PML (Nawaz) want a dam at Kalabagh. The opponents of this dam have no specific reasons. They fail to see that the greatest beneficiaries of Kalabagh Dam will be the five North West districts of NWFP including D.I.Khan and Kohat. The politicians in the forefront of anti-Kalabagh Dam movement hail from Nowshera and Charsaddah as they apprehend that their fertile lands will be submerged. The loss of a few will mean a gain or the many. In fact, Pakistan will greatly benefit. Kalabagh Dam is a technical issue and it should be handled by the powers that be at the technical level. After urgent consultations, the Parliament must decide on this technical issue in the supreme interests of Pakistan. It will be counterproductive to try to find a political solution of a technical subject. A decision on the dam must be taken-now or never.
 

Fund to save lives

TIt is difficult to believe that in just 48 hours, the world spends $4.7 billion on its military resources, but that according to the United Nations is what is happening. The revelation must give pause for considerable thought. How come with the Cold War long over and the international community settling down to expanding global trade, such immense sums are still being expended on projects to kill people?
However, the reason the UN has highlighted this figure is not to deplore it but to seek the selfsame amount in the coming year from the international community to save people - to help victims of war, famine and natural disaster. In 2005, no less than 30 million people have become victims of one or other of these tragedies, only the latest of which has been the Kashmir earthquake.
Comparing this with last December’s tsunami, it is clear that the world’s response is sadly partial. There seems to be some truth in the charge that it was because many Westerners were victims of the tidal wave that Western reaction to aid appeals was fulsome and generous. By contrast, the appalling results of the Kashmir quake brought only a limited Western response. Among Europeans, the British were to the fore but this was in part because of their large indigenous Asian community. Most large economies did their financial duty only when they were shamed into it when the shortfall in aid was made clear at a donor conference.
The problem, however, rests not simply in skinflint governments but in the structure for aid collection and disbursal. On paper this is clearly a job for the UN. A disaster emergency fund is already in the process of being created, which would give the UN the financial clout to commit resources immediately as need arose. Unfortunately, strong arguments are being made against the UN having such a responsibility. The organization has in certain areas become a byword for waste and inefficiency with subsidiary bodies such as UNESCO and the FAO being widely criticized.
However, the most damaging effect on its reputation has been the scandal over the Iraq Oil for Food program. What should have been a sophisticated humanitarian operation was turned by Saddam Hussein, his minions. greedy and dishonest UN officials and cynical and criminal companies around the world into one of the biggest-ever feeding troughs of corruption. Though Secretary-General Kofi Annan is committed to long-overdue root-and-branch reform of the UN to make it both transparent and properly accountable, the harsh fact is that this malfeasance took place on his watch. This truth offers the perfect excuse to governments who wish to shirk their international financial responsibility.
Thus those who stole so shamelessly from the Oil for Food program actually committed an even greater crime. In sullying the reputation of the UN, they also undermined its ability to be the agency of first relief for the world’s suffering poor. It is nevertheless up to the international community to look beyond this failing and back the UN appeal because in reality only the UN can do this job.

—Arab News