Analysis
All Pakistanis agree that Pakistan faces a severe water shortage, and that some form of water management must be implemented soon. Many point out that even if work on Kalabagh were to start tomorrow, it would still take at least three years to complete and commission such a large dam. In the meantime, the water situation would continue to worsen. Smaller dams, barrages, and canals must be built before that, and water conservation techniques introduced.
The WAPDA for years repeatedly changed its statistics on the dam, to the point where no-one in Pakistan now believes any of its figures. Government of Pakistan formed a technical committee, headed by A. N. G. Abbasi, to study the technical merits of the Kalabagh dam vis-a-vis the other two. The four-volume technical report concluded that Bhasha or Katzarah dam should be built before Kalabagh, further complicating matters. The report also stated that Kalabagh and Bhasha Dams could be considered feasible.
The abrupt way in which President Pervez Musharraf announced the decision to build the dam, overruling the objections of Small parties, had polarised public opinion. On 26 May 2008, Federal Minister for Water and Power of Pakistan Raja Pervez Ashraf abruptly cancelled the project and that Kalabagh Dam will not be constructed. He said due to opposition from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Sindh and other stakeholders, the project is no longer feasible.
The Prime Minister of Pakistan, Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani, announced that the fate of the project would be decided by a plebiscite. The decision came after Pakistan faced extreme power crisis and acute water shortages. The government is currently finding alternative locations for the dam.
Read more about this topic: Kalabagh Dam
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