Call for water management rather than building dams

The institution of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Pakistan (IEEEP)’s debate on ‘whether Pakistan should go for building new dams’ attracted special attention in its Multi-topic Symposium held in Karachi on Feb 21, 2019.
All six panelists of the debate ‘Dams, No Dams’ were unanimous that Pakistan should launch a comprehensive management of water resources rather than building new dams.
Although, two of the panelists who were supposed join the debate failed to turn up, enthusiastic participants—all engineers, senior and young ones—posed some robust questions to the panelists to create a balance in the debate.
Here are the arguments of the panelists:
Dr. Kaiser Bengali – A known development economist
If there is a US$100 million water facility of which 35 to 40 percent water is wasted and we make another water facility with the same cost and let the same quantity of water go waste, It means while losing US$34 to 40 million from the first facility, we are going for another matching loss. It is better to stop the leakage from the first facility rather than building a new one.
Dams don’t produce water, they only store water. If there is no water, dams would remain empty. The balance sheet of water prepared by the government tells us there is no extra water. Tarbella and Mangla already live with more dead-level years than getting filled to their capacity. Then why build a new dam and keep it empty?
The major issue is water management in Pakistan and also the cropping pattern. Maybe we should not produce water-intensive crops like rice and sugarcane. We should look at the issue in a broader sense. It is not the issue of dams or no dams. It is an issue of addressing the issue comprehensively.
In short, we need not new dams; we can manage and run water affairs in Pakistan.
S.S.A Jafri – President Jafri & Associates
It would be wrong for me to say that there should be no dams and or there should be dams either. We need dams but the only question is of what size, where to locate and what is the time frame. Suppose, we consider a normal timeframe, let’s say five to seven years obviously for the interim period then we have to make arrangements. If anyone would ask to say in one word I would say ‘no dams’.
Dr. Hassan Abbas – A prominent water management expert
Usually, storage is required if the water supply is intermittent. If the supply continues round the clock, you need not any storage. Pakistan’s all five rivers are not intermittent ephemeral rivers. They are perennial rivers flowing all seasons. Saying that we shall die if we did not build a dam is just a misperception.
Pakistan’s irrigation system utilizes most of the water of the system and it comprises 95 percent of the rivers flow which is diverted. Our irrigation system is the most inefficient in the world. Of the total 104 MAF water is used for irrigation and the agriculture yield we get through using such a quantum of water is being produced with just 40 MAF. If we use newer agro-technologies, the use of water to get present agriculture production will be reduced to 15 to 20 MAF. If we build a dam and don’t go for the water management it would not work, no matter we build fifty dams.
Do the dams manage floods?
No, they don’t. This is a misperception. Of 130 MAF flood water, any new dam will only catch 5 MAF of water and thus the overall picture would remain unchanged. Dams and barrages are not officially meant for flood management or control.
Zulifkar Halepoto – A water and irrigation expert
There is a misperception that water is an engineers issue only. This is a peoples issue connected to the whole country.
I think Pakistan needs not any dam because we need to understand the framework of water governance; dams constitute just a tiny part of it. More important is our behavior towards the water, the operation of the river system, maintaining delta and etc.
Asim Bashir, a research fellow on water
Dams are a long-run solution. But the sustainability of the project must be looked into. Dams take time, therefore, Pakistan must move towards the management of water to face the immediate challenge.
Manzoor Shaikh, Editor Engineering Review
I don’t support dams as there is no surplus water to store in the new reservoir. The report of Technical Committee formed by former president Gen. Musharraf consolidated the water availability data which was scattered with various water dealing departments in Pakistan. The committee report was never challenged in Pakistan and this deemed credible. It says there is no surplus water for dams in Pakistan.
Water center of MUET has found how water scarcity has damaged the delta. Sindh government says that 80 acres are being swallowed by the sea every day. – By Abbas Mansoor/Mohammad Salahuddin n