The Supreme Court of Pakistan (SCP) has ordered immediate construction of two dams, BhashaDiamer Dam and Mohmand Dam in the country.
The court has also formed a committee headed by Chairman WAPDA for implementation on the order. The court has attached top priority with these projects.
Chief Justice MianSaqibNisar along with his fellow judges believe that water is essential for the survival of the peoplethusboth the water reservoirs should be constructed on a priority basis.
The apex court has moved after an acute shortage of water that Pakistan is facing at the moment. The crisis will become worse, if not solved now, experts predict.
The Supreme Court has also sought in three weeks a report from the federal government, WAPDA,and other associated institutions as regards construction of dams.
Chief Justice directed to open a bank account in the name of Registrar Supreme Court where people can deposit donations for the construction of dams. He himself donated Rs.1 million for construction of these dams.
Following the decision, an account was opened by the Ministry of Finance under the title of “DIAMER-BHASHA AND MOHMAND DAM FUND –2018”.
The account bears Account No.03-593-299999-001-4 and IBN No.PK06SBPP0035932999990014 for raising funds for the construction of the two dams.
The payments in the fund will be received at all branches of the State Bank of Pakistan, all treasuries,and branches of the National Bank of Pakistan and all other scheduled banks.
The fund may receive donations from both domestic and international donors and contributions from abroad which will be received at all branches of these banks where such branches exist.
In other foreign countries, contributions will be received at the Pakistan Missions and remitted to the State Bank of Pakistan which would prescribe necessary accounting procedure.
The order of the court has made it clear that the funds in this account would not, under any circumstance or for any reason, be diverted or utilised for any other purpose than the construction of the dams.
Also, the court has directed that no questions would be asked by any authority or department, including tax authorities, relating to the source of funds contributed to the account, but the utilisation of the funds would be subject to audit as per directions of the apex court.
Following chief justice’s donations, the armed forces of Pakistan also decided to contribute funds for the construction of the dams.
“The officers of army, navy and air force will contribute their two days’ pay, while soldiers [will be donating] one day’s pay to the announced fund for this national cause,” the Inter-Service Public Relations (ISPR) chief Maj Gen Asif Ghafoor tweeted.
Also, the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims) management requested its staff to donate to funds for the construction of dams. Pims Executive Director Dr. Raja Amjad issued a circular, stating that the staff should donate funds for the construction of Diamer-Bhasha and Mohmand dams.
Bhasha Dam
Diamer-Bhasha Dam is a gravity dam on Indus River in GilgitBaltistan, Pakistan. It is in the preliminary stages of construction. Its foundation stone was laid by Prime Minister Yusuf RazaGilani of Pakistan on 18 October 2011. Upon completion, Diamer-Bhasha Dam would be the highest roller-compacted concrete (RCC) dam in the world.
The dam site is situated near a place called “Bhasha” in Gilgit-Baltistan’s Diamer District.
Diamer-Bhasha Dam would produce 4,500 megawatts of electricity through environmentally clean hydropower generation, store an extra 8,500,000 acre-feet of water to be used for irrigation and drinking and also extend by 35 years the life of Tarbela Dam which is located in the downstream. This dam would control flood damage by the River Indus downstream during high floods.
The cost of the Diamer-Bhasha dam was estimated at $12.6 billion in 2018. An amount of Rs 27.824 billion is required for the acquisition of land & resettlement of the people to be affected in the wake of the construction of the dam. Under the proposed project, Rs 10.76 billion will be spent for the acquisition of agriculture-barren land, tree and nurseries and Rs 1.638 billion to be utilized for properties and infrastructure, Rs 8.8 billion for establishment of nine model villages, Rs 62.119 million for pay and allowances for administrative arrangements, and Rs.17.7 million for contingent administrative expenses.
The project also includes an escalation cost of Rs 2.234 billion at the rate of 6 percent per year for five years and interest of Rs 4.309 billion during the implementation at the rate of 9 percent.
Detailed drawings of the dam were completed by March 2008.
In 2012, the project faced several setbacks due to major sponsors backing out from financing the project, as World Bank and Asian Development Bank (ADB) both refused to finance the project as according to them its location is in disputed territory and asked Pakistan to get a NOC from neighbouring India.
Later on, China also did not commit funds for the project under the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). However, many people in the PML – N government hoped to have financial assistance from China.
China placed strict conditions including on the ownership of the project. China had projected the cost of the dam to be $14 billion.
In 2013, Finance Minister of Pakistan, Ishaq Dar claimed that they had convinced the World Bank (WB) and the Aga Khan Development Network to finance the Diamer-Bhasha Project without the requirement of NOC from India.
Mohmand Dam
In April 2018, Executive Committee of National Economic Council headed by ShahidKhaqanAbbasi, the then prime minister approved Mohmand Dam Hydropower Project at a cost of 309.55 billion rupees.
Mohmand Dam will be a multi-purpose project which besides producing 800 MW electricity, will have a storage capacity of 1,594 million cubic meters of water to be used for irrigation, flood mitigation and supply of drinking water to Peshawar and FATA.
The move in the apex court is being appreciated at public level in the country where the shortage of water and future predictions have created huge concerns as regards the future availability of water in the river system.
But still many people doubt if the court orders would see the reality of the day as Kala Bagh Dam lobby is reluctant to go for Bhasha as it kills the possibilities of constructing Kala Bagh Dam in the future.
There are many bureaucrats and Punjab-based experts who are on record saying that Bhasha is a non-starter. This project has never been taken seriously.
Sindh and KP are in favour of BhashaDam as they both oppose Kala Bagh Dam and have passed more than three assembly resolutions against the controversial reservoir.
